Review: The Duke, Tobacco Factory Theatres

With The Duke, Tobacco Factory Theatres hosts its second touring show in the brand new Spielman Theatre, a pristine square black box with a nice wide, deep end-on stage and comfortable red seats that are clones of those in the main-house, in a fixed-rake format that’s less steep than the old studio at The Brewery, though without its central aisle.

The Spielman is spacious, airy and welcoming and there’s no sense architecturally that TFT has done any shoehorning to bring both theatre spaces neatly under one roof. Now that Bristol Old Vic’s new Weston Studio is also up and running – with The Wardrobe Theatre having put itself firmly on the map while both these new studios were under construction – Bristol’s theatres are embarking on a welcome new era of staging lots more touring work and in-house shows in central locations.

Nationally and internationally acclaimed Cambridge company Hoipolloi has garnered a slew of theatre awards and stellar reviews for its work. Real-life partner team Shôn Dale-Jones and Steffi Mueller are best known for their Hugh Hughes shows – Hugh is an alterego of Shôn’s, an emerging “Welsh artist and member of the world”. Shôn makes it crystal clear from the outset that he’s playing himself in The Duke (and also raising money in the process for Save The Children’s Child Refugee Appeal, now just shy of the £50K mark. His other show Me and Robin Hood has so far raised £20K for Street Child United: philanthropy through the medium of theatre).

“We’re all just human beings trying to keep our heads above water.” This is fringe theatre with a big heart and a social conscience running through it like a stick of rock, but it’s not worthy or preachy – it’s still art first and foremost, and art that is tender, funny, left-field and thought-provoking. Set up as ‘lecture theatre’ with a central table with control panel emitting tunes and sounds, Shôn finds his inner ‘commentator’ on the mic without ever losing his main role as master storyteller.

He can talk for England, or more accurately, Wales, or more accurately Anglesey. When he pitches a surreal film script about the isle of Anglesey floating away, he’s faced with an issue of artistic integrity: he either completely rewrites it to conform to the standard Hollywood formula or it doesn’t get produced. No film, no money.

It is integrity that lies at the heart of The Duke. Do we stay true to what we believe in and keep being human, or are we swayed by a fistful of dollars? This sums up the dichotomy of our world in which profit most often trumps people. The Duke in question is a porcelain figurine that is beloved of his mother, and which is a talisman of family values – Shôn the son will do anything to honour and fulfil the familial love it symbolises.

We’re thus taken on a quest that is part shaggy-dog story and part treasure hunt, careering around Wales in a black Audi TT Coupé rental car (product placement, another object of desire or just a set of wheels?). But it’s a long journey and the car’s got a radio, and the radio keeps saying things about drowning refugees in boats, things we’ve heard before, things we’re worried we’ve stopped listening to…

The Duke is about deciding to listen and do something – however small in the bigger picture of things – while still hanging on to your art, while still staying alive, while still running around working, earning a living and trying to stay connected to the people you love.

In his autobiography Bob Dylan said “I do the thing I love most in the world, and I get paid for it. How lucky is that?”. The Duke is about the art of doing just that, without losing your integrity or selling out your humanity. It’s a special experience: don’t miss it, or the opportunity to help the show’s fundraising appeal hit the £50K mark during its Tobacco Factory run.

The Duke continues at Tobacco Factory Theatres until Saturday, Nov 3. For more info, visit www.tobaccofactorytheatres.com/shows/the-duke

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