Writer: Daisy Frost and Perci Jessie
Director: Daisy Frost
Grimfest, ‘a celebration of Dark & Twisted Theatre in the bleeding heart of London,’ runs in various venues until 31 October. In His Name is one of the featured shows, running for two nights at the Old Red Lion Theatre.
It’s a 50-minute gallop of a show, based in Maine in 1965. Stanley is a young American evangelical who is driving his wife Dolores and their son Damian to a new town to begin a fresh mission. The image of a happy family innocently singing on their journey quickly disintegrates when, on arrival, Stanley begins an extempore prayer alluding to alcoholism and ‘womanly hysteria’.
All-American mom Dolores begins rolling out cookie dough, inviting young Damian to help. He’s soon playfully chucking flour around (a brave directorial decision in a small theatre). Stanley’s intervention sets the tone for the rest of the piece. ‘It’s time to get the belt out again!’ he shouts. ‘Spare the rod and spoil the child.’ It’s a short move from this to labelling Damian a ‘degenerate pinko queer’. ‘Eve was weak,’ he adds darkly.
In no time at all, we hear from Damian about ‘Daddy playing games with other children’ – ‘private games,’ he adds. Mother and son soothe themselves by singing Edelweis. Daisy Frost, playing Dolores, has a lovely voice, although the point of this, and other songs, including Run Rabbit Run and Fly Me to the Moon, feels more like a way of showcasing this than contributing to the story.
The violence escalates with an unconvincingly delivered blow by Stanley to his wife, followed by the rather more convincing appearance of a giant knife. Stanley insists Dolores is mentally unstable, and suddenly she’s being handcuffed by sinister medics intent on lobotomising her.
In His Name certainly fits the bill for a programme of horror, but it all happens at such a lick that it’s hard to see it as ‘haunting and emotionally unflinching,’ as promised in the publicity material.
Runs until 14 October 2025
The Reviews Hub Star Rating
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5
