Theatre / bristol company
Review: Orca, Alma Tavern Theatre
“Will you STOP just saying WORDS?” Thus hard-nosed animal rights activist Esme (Lucy Ross-Elliott) berates whimsical, self-doubting Willard (Angus Harrison) early on in this blackly funny two-hander by Bristol’s Unlit Productions. In fact, words turn out to be pretty much all the ill-assorted duo have, as they find themselves sequestered in an airless box for days on end with a most unusual fellow passenger.
Y’see, Esme (an old hand at this sort of thing) and Willard (a novice, keen to do something to shake himself out of his twentysomething, middle-class anomie) have together abducted a killer whale from an aquarium and contracted a truck driver to convey themselves and the aforementioned marine mammal (and tank) some 5,000-odd miles to Russia’s eastern extremity.
However, weeks of enforced confinement inevitably bring out stresses and strains between the duo. Esme is a tough nut who only gradually sheds her skin of scornful indifference; Willard is a nervy, super-articulate bag of neuroses, analysing every gesture and situation in front of him and questioning his place in the grand scheme of things.
Beside all this sharply-scripted odd-couple comedy, Harrison and Francis Blagburn’s script give us a couple of genuinely poetic moments (Willard’s description of a nightmare, the play’s opening gambit, almost deserves a short story of its own). Mostly, though, there is copious dark humour engendered by throwing two badly-matched people into a confined space on a frightening and possibly pointless mission, and leaving them there to stew for a fortnight.
And there, in the background, splashing away ominously, is the eponymous orca, an unknowably strange presence – or, as a bewildered Esme puts it, late in the journey as her sense of self starts to unravel, “a 5,000-pound black monster that clicks in the nights and eats baby seals for sport”.
So, plenty of pitch-black humour punctuated by some lyrical passages and the odd genuinely chewy existential poser – and two engaged, absorbing performances from Harrison and Ross-Elliott. There’s a nice twist at the end, two, when a third speaking character delivers their own take on the morally ambiguous quest – in fact, it’s their unique and very different take on things that will echo on in your mind as you leave the theatre.
Orca continues at the Alma Tavern until Saturday, 24 January. For more info and to book tickets, visit almataverntheatre.co.uk/theatre/what-s-on
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