Fresh from a well-received run at the Edinburgh Fringe, He had hairy hands, has arrived at London’s New Diorama Theatre near Regent’s Park. This latest production from Kill the Beast stars Zoe Roberts, David Cumming, Natasha Hodgson and Ollie Jones in a Scooby-Doo-with-absurd-asides type mystery. HHHH involves the investigation of a death in a small English town called Hemlock-under-Lye. Owing to local myth, a werewolf is suspected.
Heavily influenced by the League of Gentlemen He had hairy hands is a confusing piece of theatre. The action charges on at pace, with little variety in mood or chance for reflection – even of the what is going on? variety. The four actors enthusiastically play a multitude of odd parts, whilst the plot has manifold digressions. Scenes change quickly – the mix includes (but is not limited to) morgue investigations, graveyard aerobic classes, repressed lesbian hill walkers, bingo callers, school safety instructors and a mayor who believes his son is a pigeon. Some of the jokes work well – a quick morse code jape is fun – but the constant attempt to be surreal and whacky comes across as a garbled, constantly changing stream of ideas.
The action takes place in front of a back-projected screen. Although this robs the staging of physical depth, it is a successful system, allowing instantaneous visual changes and letting the atmospheric images by Alex Purcell react to what happens on stage. Film-like titles of the Five years later type are also used, as are long scrolling credits at the end – although as they claim Meryl Streep was involved I’m not sure they can be trusted.
At the start we’re in a back street with adverts on the walls for unusual plays that set the scene for what’s to come – Guys and Trolls sticks in the mind. A prologue appears to show a woman give birth to (or have an abortion of) a pile of clothes and a fur coat – although as it takes place low on the stage and very close to the front row of the audience exactly what happened was impossible to see from my seat.
White face paint gives all the characters a sheen of similarity and prevents any from being mistakenly considered normal. All have quirks. Zoe Roberts plays Eglantine Whitechapel, the detective forced out of retirement to solve one last case. She delivers her character’s puns with glee, but Ollie Jones’ Mayor has the funniest of the lines. His pet project is a local historiorium, which he has built in the town without anyone ever finding out exactly what a historiorium is. Natasha Hodgson nails the physicality, whilst David Cumming has the grotesque down perfectly. All the performers launch regularly into song throughout the 1 hour 15 minutes of the production.
The overall look of the piece is well created and consistent – if not appealing, but there is only one tone throughout which becomes wearing. He had hairy hands is fast and surreal but lacks focus. The play had corking ratings during its Edinburgh run and though I didn’t find HHHH very funny, the company is one to follow.
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