Hen and Chicken, Highbury – 7 March 2018. Reviewed by Sharon Hinds Kennedy
2**
The Theatre of Heaven and Hell presents Dario Fo’s Abducting Diana
This production took place at the Hen and Chicken Theatre Bar in Highbury and Islington, London. The theatre is above a fun and busy bar which could not be heard upstairs in the theatre. The theatre itself is small and intimate with raised seating facing a small performance area. Lighting was very good as was the use of the performance area. Props consisted of a table, a couple of chairs and a very large freezer chest (big enough to fit a large man inside!). Scene changes were cleverly accomplished by the removal of dust sheets that had been thrown over the aforementioned props before the play began.
The performance begin with the main character guiding a blindfolded man, for whom she has plans of a sexual nature. It appears she picked up this man randomly at a club. Before anything can happen between them, their intimacy is disturbed by a gang of gas mask wearing kidnappers. It soon turns out that the gang believe they have kidnapped a millionaire business woman and proprietor of a tabloid newspaper.
The performance starts off with a hilarious and entertaining scene, when they find out they have actually got the businesswoman’s body double. The first half is very funny, with the use of cardboard cut out masks to conceal the identity of the kidnappers.
However the play soon descends into farce as the incompetence of the kidnappers becomes apparent as Diana takes control of the gang to discover who is behind her kidnap and it becomes apparent they really do have the real Diana.
Just over a third of the way through the farce becomes strangely dark and loses it’s way. There is a point where a character stands on chair in a Christ like manner glowing in red light and babbles incoherently, a strange motif in a farce. After this mysterious and slightly confusing act, the play resumes its previous comedic nature. But then a twist as it ends with two dark endings.
At times the script was rather cheesy and it seemed unable to decide what genre it was aiming to place itself under.