Writer: Duncan Henderson
Director: Joanna Rosenfeld
What shapes a person? Is it the way they were raised or is it circumstance that has the majority of influence on someone’s life? The debate of nature vs nurture is one often discussed – the concept being further explored during Duncan Henderson’s one-man show following the life of a senior politician.
Told as a series of snippets, we see how the unnamed protagonist has meandered through life. The audience is shown him being shipped off to boarding school as a child, then snorting cocaine at a university party through to him making a rousing political speech at the height of his career. These fragmented pieces of his life come together to both excuse and explain his behaviour in various scenes showcasing his power or lack of it, breaking down his character into a sequence of snapshots for the audience to analyse.
Writer and performer Duncan Henderson uses just a table, chair and a subtle soundscape to take the audience through his journey. He is fantastic at morphing through each stage of his character’s life, using his talent to cleverly engage the audience into understanding every scene and plot point even through the one-sided dialogue and minimalist approach on stage. He gives a strong performance and manifests quickly and easily into a generic stereotype of government minister.
While Henderson captivates the audience with his one-sided conversations, the moments of emptiness and silence are too frequent to bypass during this hour-long show. Relying heavily on audience imagination and concentration is tough at the best of times, but when the whole show is centralised around needing to fill in the blanks and piece together a life of character-defining moments, it makes for a hard ask. While this show would work well with arthouse theatre lovers, who are well versed in following more abstract pieces, it’s too nuanced to elevate beyond that. The slow pace and long periods of isolated speech make it easy for the audience to lost interest, as the scripted portions don’t bring enough intrigue or narrative excitement to strip away the air of boredom that gets created from the nothingness.
Cleverly constructed and well-acted, Henderson’s show definitely has potential to appeal to anyone with fringe theatre or political interests, but it needs just a touch more refinement and a stronger narrative thread to really pull this performance together and make an impact.
Runs until 12 May 2022
1 Comment
Your review may have some validity, in the hands of a lesser actor, but Duncan Henderson performance was so strong that it held me throughout (and I’m not an arthouse theatre lover – I have probably not been to the theatre for over three years).
The subject is really interesting and he was just fantastic