Writers: Angus Castle-Doughty, George John, Charlie MacVicar, Alex Maxwell, Dan Whitlam
Director: Catherine Cranfield
Incognito’s comic show The Net Kill is part of the Come What May Festival, a month long festival showcasing plays that were affected by the decision to cancel this year’s VAULT festival. The Net Kill is a lively piece of physical theatre with a delightfully daft plot.
Four young men form a Victorian badminton team, with camp, non-sporty Percy (Charlie MacVicar) as their faithful supporter. Their dramatic success in the South London league is down in part to the machinations of ‘Wizard’ Alfred (Hamish Lloyd Barnes) who is happy to drug and/or poison members of rival teams. But this leads to two mysterious bowler-hatted men, supposedly on Her Majesty’s Service, recruiting them to investigate the mysterious Beast of Gloucestershire, responsible for a recent spate of freak deaths (cue joke about why it would target freaks).
The ensemble pieces where all five suddenly spring into action, playing badminton, energetically training or simply psyching themselves up, are the best part of the show. Tightly choreographed by Zak Nermion to pleasingly anachronistic rock, these brief scenes are genuinely funny, inventively varied and slickly performed. The precision of this ensemble work is sometimes lacking in the rest of the show. There is too much running around and shouting, and the pace verges on chaos, and so overall the comedy is a bit hit-and-miss.
Dan Whitlam’s height and looks makes him the obvious leader. As William, he is caught up in visions of himself as King Arthur leading his knights into battle. But the star of the show is Angus Castle-Doughty as Robert. With his twitches, snarls and staring eyes, not to mention his impressive physique, Robert stands out from the more conventional public school characters. It all makes sense when, in a scene of male sharing in the forest, he reveals he was raised by wolves. His performance throughout is masterly.
The sensibility of The Net Kill is twenty-first century, in as much as any show with an all-male, white, cast can be, so of course bullied Percy finds his inner strength and the badminton players all admit their love for him. It’s all good fun, but could do with some tightening up.
Runs until 7 May 2022
