THE MURDERER (Clown Funeral)***

 

By Cal

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yALJvqK59QU

Available until: Unknown

There are a lot of plays on the subject of therapists and patients, some of them extremely good and some… not so good. This play looks at the subject from an angle which I haven’t seen before. A female Murderer is in a rehabilitation programme. She has already completed part of it and is now at the stage where she is given a carer. Once she has passed this part of the treatment, she’ll move on to the next stage.

The aim seems to be for the Murderer to move on from what she’s done, but without forgetting it. Her carer (who lives with her in a home free of knives, though she is given the concession of not having to share a room with him) refers to her as ‘Murderer’, in public and in private. The carer gives her therapy and also takes responsibility for her entertainment, taking her out every day and playing badminton with her.

It’s a good idea. There are ethical issues with the rehab programme which really bother me, but I’ve seen enough of mental health and social care support to find the set-up all too believable. I think there is a lot in this play which we can discuss and debate, including questions which are asked directly in the play itself. The girl is asked if she’s ‘still’ a murderer. It might seem like an obvious question at first. She has been found guilty of murder – though the truth might be a lot more complicated than that. But is there a difference between someone who is still a danger to society and someone who is not likely to kill anyone ever again? If there is a difference, do we take that into account or can we not afford to do that? It’s all very interesting.

Sam George's production uses a lot of doorways. It's a great way of setting up a new room or setting and I think the doorways also represent the idea of moving from one metaphorical place to another as the Murderer completes different parts of her rehabilitation. They're also useful when the Murderer and the Carer disagree: they stand on either side of the doorway, which becomes a physical barrier to understanding.

I’m not completely sure who wrote this. Luke Kennard is credited with writing the original poem this was inspired by, but I’m not sure what role, if any, he had in the actual play. The other writing credit is given to Clown Funeral so it’s possible a lot of people contributed to the writing. Whoever it was, I think the writing is very good.

There are three actors in this play. Ella Tebay plays the Murderer, an apparently conventional (I hate the word ‘normal’) girl who takes rehab in her stride and is happy to engage with it. She accepts what she’s done. She’s also very funny. When I read the video description for this play, I didn’t expect it to be funny at all. It’s not a funny subject and jokes about the situation could seem really inappropriate. But Ella delivers each joke faultlessly and I not only laughed, I didn’t feel guilty for laughing afterwards. From the sound of the laughter coming from the audience, neither did they.

Patrick Tobin plays the Carer. He’s very professional, but he’s also a bit of a geek (and I don’t mean that as an insult at all – I actually find geekiness really attractive. Ask my fiancé!). I do have issues with the Carer’s ethics (though he’s probably just following the rules), but I couldn’t help liking him as a human being. He takes his job seriously and works hard at it. The trouble is, at least in this case, there are signs he’s getting a little bit too attached. Patrick plays the unintentional humour really well and makes the Carer into a really likeable character.

The third cast member is Sam Thorogood, who plays Everyone Else and is also a co-producer. Maybe this is me being stupid, but I didn’t really take in that he was playing lots of different characters, but I think they are all meant to be very similar. They’re employees of the rehab programme and they all have a particular way of speaking, which also contributes a lot to the humour of the piece.

Everything that is actually in the play is really good, but there were some things I felt which were missing. Although I did like the way the Murderer was (mostly) so calm and conventional and accepting of everything and I enjoy Ella’s performance, I don’t really feel as though I know her as a character. Also, the plot is a bit limited. We see the Murderer go through a process, from beginning to end, but I didn’t really feel that we got to see her grow and change – and the end of the story doesn’t really seem like result of anything the two central characters do or don’t do. It’s just the natural ending of the process.

But I really liked the ideas in the play and the questions it asks, the doorways, the very clever humour in the script and the good performances from the actors. I enjoy watching plays for entertainment, but it’s always great to find a play that makes me think.