Natasha Markou’s debut play, Dick Fiddler is Dead, opened last night on the first day of the Voila! Festival.
Described by the writer-director-producer as “my experimental fusion of Theatre of the Absurd with emotional realism, a hybrid form I call Emotional Absurdia”, the play has comic elements alongside an artificial form of dialogue and the power of love through cooking.
It stars Julia Righton as Jenny and Pravessh Rana as Dick, a young man who feels himself in the jaws of death but with perhaps the possibility of hope. The pair meet on a park bench, location undisclosed, time uncertain.
Deeply surreal in its initial tone and form, Dick Fiddler Is Dead evolves into something more original and grounded, although the process is slow.
We question what we are seeing throughout. Who is Dick (and why on earth didn’t he rebrand himself as Rick or Richard in life if his name held him back?). Who is Jenny and why is she so committed to consuming Greek food?
Who is the unseen Inspector? Where do the characters move to, if they ever leave? What is the significance of memory, words, tastes and ingredients?
Dick Fiddler Is Dead makes an unusual start to the festival, offering a meditation on life, death, second chances, and forgotten regrets.
Its considered pacing works well with the topic (‘can you cook your way back to life?’) and ideas, although the very end lines may be deleted easily without harming the play (as the audience confirmed by applauding ‘the end’ just before it).
Righton is brisk, officious, and surprisingly tender, while Rana is an engaging performer full of curiosity and energy. This is a play of talk, not of action.
The use of real food in the play adds that sense of realism – literally as a rogue cloud of floor hit audience members in the front row – while the conceit of having Righton on stage before the show begins pulls us into the show before lights down, asking who is she and why is she there?
I’m giving this 3.5 stars.
Dick Fiddler Is Dead, produced by London Production Studios, is at the Etcetera Theatre as part of the Voila! Festival until 7 Nov with tickets here.