An interesting experience that leaves little to the imagination.
A place I am often excited to visit and see plays at is the King’s Head Theatre in Angel.
The venue’s ability to nurture and facilitate interesting interpretations as well as new plays is frankly incredible. When I saw the morbid ads for “Pitchfork Disney”, I knew I had to go right away and see what this was all about.
As I sit down knowing nothing of the play or the playwright, the set intrigues me from the start. It is a simple set of an almost empty living room, and in the corner, a door with many locks. I started to imagine what the play might be about, a feeling I’m still sitting with.
As the show starts, we are introduced to Presley and Haley, two shut-in siblings who seem to have never gone outside for longer than to go to the shop and back. Their childlike energy makes you understand that they have been in that house since they were children, and the fact that they only eat biscuits and chocolates indicates that there aren’t any parents or real grown-ups present.
Their communication consists of telling stories; monologues are spun and acted out in the most animated way possible. The energy both actors contain throughout the first 15 minutes truly is impressive, and the fact that they can keep it going throughout the entirety of the play is to be applauded; it does, however, leave very little room for growth in their energy and their storytelling. The brother seems scared but quiet, while the sister is high energy and loud.
Siblings staying indoors to avoid the horrors of the outside world only to let in a fraction of it and be proven right by a beautiful villain and a mute gimp is in many ways very aligned with the rest of the play. The monologues only become longer and louder, and the themes of the play only become darker and more morbid.
The play was written in 2017, a time when we thought it was bad, but we didn’t know just how bad it could get. In 2017 I believe this play might have worked as a reminder of just how much terror is just at our doorstep, but in today’s society we know; we have, in a sense, all invited Pitchfork Disney inside and are hoping that he will leave voluntarily soon. So, the play, despite good acting and a great set, doesn’t seem as scary; it more seems a little monotonous and obvious.
A playwright once told me that monologues are a cop-out, that the true art of plays lies within making a stream of consciousness into a dialogue, and I would have loved to see what this play would have looked like if there was more focus on the dialogue between the cast instead of just monologues.
I really did enjoy the play as an experience; so many parts really worked for me, but the script and the direction of the play left me a little exhausted at the end of it. I can’t imagine how the actors must feel after every show, but I commend them all.
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