Camden Theatre Review: The Brood

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The Review - THEATRE by SIMON WROE
Published: 31 July 2008

Brood for thought over lunch

THE BROOD
The Albany Pub

HERE’S a light summer lunch recipe for you, courtesy of Fleshpot Theatre: take some cherry tomatoes, a head of romaine lettuce and some baby chard leaves, season with pesto vinaigrette, incest and forced fellatio; drizzle with murder to finish.
Modern Oedipal tale The Brood is the latest endeavour from the young theatre company, who entice lunchtime punters in with the offer of a ploughman’s lunch and a pint of beer (or fizzy drink) while they watch.
That’s a play, a pint and a ploughmans – the three Ps – for £10.
They endorse new writing and keep their choices on the brief side, usually under an hour.
It’s commendable bribery, although this first play in the season may not be the most appetising dish.
Slobbish brute Maggs rules his home with an iron fist, drinking heavily with his Cro-Magnon companion Snake and lashing out abusively at his wife and son. An axe has pride of place on the mantelpiece.
But behind his back his family are plotting his death and indulging in over-enthusiastic foot massages
during Emmerdale.
The cast succeed to varying degrees with the material. Shelly Lang stands out as the long-suffering Val; while Paul Biggin as her teenage son manages to be both menacing towards and scared of his father, and protective and guiltily detached towards his mother.
Dominic Tabone, however, is too softly spoken and rushed in his dialogue to quite convince as the snarling patriarch Maggs.
Whether lunchtime theatre will catch on is debatable. It would be great to see plays where food was central to the plot. Babette’s Feast, perhaps. Actors and audience could all scoff together. Otherwise it’s a rather surreptitious act, trying not to crunch too hard in the quiet parts.
Oh, and I never realised how hard it is to eat salad in the dark.
UNTIL August 14
020 8348 4762

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