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John Smythe April 27th, 2017

Here is the link to my chat on RNZ with Jesse Mulligan about HAND TO GOD – and because I didn’t get to mention everyone I wanted to, here are my notes:

HAND TO GOD by Robert Askins has been named by American Theatre magazine as the most produced play in the USA over the 2016/2017 season.  Why?
Because it liberates repressed feelings and thoughts?
Because it speaks truths in outrageous ways – truth that resonate in all our lives?

The catalyst is a hand puppet of the kind we’ve all seen on Sesame Street and The Muppets – a puppet called Tyrone, created by a sensitive and introverted teenage boy called Jason, whose mother, Margery, is running a puppet club in the basement of a Fundamentalist Christian Church in a suburb of Texas, USA. So the starting point is moral propriety and cute little puppets …

The tradition goes back to medieval Jesters – to the little doll doppelganger which had even more licence than the Jester to speak the unspeakable.
Or the ventriloquist’s so-called Dummy – the alter-ego whose behaviour can horrify and even be disowned by the ventriloquist.

The other way of looking at this ‘split-personality’ syndrome is as ‘demonic possession’ and a number of tropes from The Exorcist do get a run in this play.

Tyrone delivers a prologue which establishes the key thematic drivers as the ‘individual versus community’ and ‘good versus evil’ – and because it’s theatre the audience warms very quickly to the supposedly ‘evil’ puppet, not least because he speaks the truth; he reveals what’s really going on for Jason.

The back story is that Jason’s dad has died and his mother, Margery, is ‘hurting so bad’ at the loss, and riddled with quite a lot of guilt as well, that she’s ‘not there for’ Jason – who is harbouring a deep-set anger at both his parents, at the way they stuffed up their lives – so it all comes out through the puppet, Tyrone, who becomes increasingly demonic as the play progresses.

Tom Clarke is superb as both Jason and Tyrone, ensuring we feel the boy’s pain even as we thrill to Tyrone’s outrageous behaviour. It’s a huge challenge that he meets with great skill – not least in the puppetry (coached by Jon Coddington who made all the iterations of Tryone and the other puppets too).

As Margery, Amy Tarleton likewise elicits compassion despite getting way out of control with bad boy Timothy, whose macho, sexually predatory, bullying behaviour also hides a hurting soul – and Jack Buchanan is brilliant at both being the bastard and giving us that insight into his vulnerability. Playwright Robert Askin is making an important point here about how attractive bad boys can be; asking us to ask ourselves what that’s about.

Askin also plays with our desire for romance, first with Pastor Greg – poignantly played by Peter Hambleton – whose unrequited feeling for Margery may be seen as love or as a tacky attempt to exploit a vulnerable woman ...

But the really heart-warming part of the play comes with the slow blooming of a relationship between the quiet girl, Jessica – wonderfully realised by Hannah Banks – and Jason: a consummation both facilitated and counterpointed through her very proactive puppet, Jolene, and Jason’s extroverted Tyrone.

So beneath all the fear, hurt, anger, aggression and exploitation, love is at the heart of Hand to God – and director by Lyndee-Jane Rutherford ensures we get it all in this hugely entertaining and highly dynamic production.

A shout out too, to the designers: Ian Harmon’s set and costume, Jennifer Lal’s lighting and Darlene Mohekey’s sound designs enable and enhance our experience with great artistry.

Hand to God is a hell of a ride – at Circa Theatre, Wellington until 20 May.

PS: I said in my review that it “offers an insight into how the religious right can be so ill-equipped to deal with life’s complexities that they believe in someone like Trump and vote him in despite – or perhaps, in part, because of – his own gross behaviour.” So is this play’s huge popularity in the USA a reflection of that zeitgeist or an attempt to purge ourselves of it?

Here is the link to my chat on RNZ with Jesse Mulligan about HAND TO GOD – and because I didn’t get to mention everyone I wanted to, here are my notes:

HAND TO GOD by Robert Askins has been named by American Theatre magazine as the most produced play in the USA over the 2016/2017 season.  Why?
Because it liberates repressed feelings and thoughts?
Because it speaks truths in outrageous ways – truth that resonate in all our lives?

The catalyst is a hand puppet of the kind we’ve all seen on Sesame Street and The Muppets – a puppet called Tyrone, created by a sensitive and introverted teenage boy called Jason, whose mother, Margery, is running a puppet club in the basement of a Fundamentalist Christian Church in a suburb of Texas, USA. So the starting point is moral propriety and cute little puppets …

The tradition goes back to medieval Jesters – to the little doll doppelganger which had even more licence than the Jester to speak the unspeakable.
Or the ventriloquist’s so-called Dummy – the alter-ego whose behaviour can horrify and even be disowned by the ventriloquist.

The other way of looking at this ‘split-personality’ syndrome is as ‘demonic possession’ and a number of tropes from The Exorcist do get a run in this play.

Tyrone delivers a prologue which establishes the key thematic drivers as the ‘individual versus community’ and ‘good versus evil’ – and because it’s theatre the audience warms very quickly to the supposedly ‘evil’ puppet, not least because he speaks the truth; he reveals what’s really going on for Jason.

The back story is that Jason’s dad has died and his mother, Margery, is ‘hurting so bad’ at the loss, and riddled with quite a lot of guilt as well, that she’s ‘not there for’ Jason – who is harbouring a deep-set anger at both his parents, at the way they stuffed up their lives – so it all comes out through the puppet, Tyrone, who becomes increasingly demonic as the play progresses.

Tom Clarke is superb as both Jason and Tyrone, ensuring we feel the boy’s pain even as we thrill to Tyrone’s outrageous behaviour. It’s a huge challenge that he meets with great skill – not least in the puppetry (coached by Jon Coddington who made all the iterations of Tryone and the other puppets too).

As Margery, Amy Tarleton likewise elicits compassion despite getting way out of control with bad boy Timothy, whose macho, sexually predatory, bullying behaviour also hides a hurting soul – and Jack Buchanan is brilliant at both being the bastard and giving us that insight into his vulnerability. Playwright Robert Askin is making an important point here about how attractive bad boys can be; asking us to ask ourselves what that’s about.

Askin also plays with our desire for romance, first with Pastor Greg – poignantly played by Peter Hambleton – whose unrequited feeling for Margery may be seen as love or as a tacky attempt to exploit a vulnerable woman ...

But the really heart-warming part of the play comes with the slow blooming of a relationship between the quiet girl, Jessica – wonderfully realised by Hannah Banks – and Jason: a consummation both facilitated and counterpointed through her very proactive puppet, Jolene, and Jason’s extroverted Tyrone.

So beneath all the fear, hurt, anger, aggression and exploitation, love is at the heart of Hand to God – and director by Lyndee-Jane Rutherford ensures we get it all in this hugely entertaining and highly dynamic production.

A shout out too, to the designers: Ian Harmon’s set and costume, Jennifer Lal’s lighting and Darlene Mohekey’s sound designs enable and enhance our experience with great artistry.

Hand to God is a hell of a ride – at Circa Theatre, Wellington until 20 May.

PS: I said in my review that it “offers an insight into how the religious right can be so ill-equipped to deal with life’s complexities that they believe in someone like Trump and vote him in despite – or perhaps, in part, because of – his own gross behaviour.” So is this play’s huge popularity in the USA a reflection of that zeitgeist or an attempt to purge ourselves of it?