Review: HOLY FOOL at Park Theatre

Rosalind Adler and Lea Sellers’ play HOLY FOOL recently opened at Park Theatre. It has clearly been a labour of love and attempts to shine a light on the life of one of the 20th century’s most original classical composers who is frequently lauded by scholars as the moral compass of Soviet era music.

Directed by Kate Fahy in the theatre’s large space, the piece delivers scenes of domesticity — vignettes of verbosity during which much is said but where little is actually revealed about the individuals living under the yoke of a paranoid and autocratic regime. Plumbers come and go, referencing poor infrastructure, bureaucracy, backhanders and big brother, but it’s all rather superficial and only very infrequently imbues any genuine sense of jeopardy or a hidden lurking menace.

Altogether more effective were the creative team’s budget efforts to realise the three year long siege of Leningrad with just a few flashing lights, loud distant rumblings and a plume of descending smoke and dust from above (shortly after which, a waft of talcum powder filled my nostrils). Like the Russians themselves who were reduced to eating rats and presumably each other, this struck me as inventive, resourceful and no doubt borne of necessity. However, it was also ridiculously twee and overly determined not to offend anyone’s sensibilities, whereas war is a ghastly, cruel and ugly thing. Here, we’re never really concerned that the vodka bottle will ever truly run dry.

The cast of four doing their best to recreate Soviet Russia (and even a small slice of picket fence America late in proceedings), are Benjamin O’Mahony as the anxious and subversive composer, Jenna Augen as his wife Nina, Fergus O’Donnell as Izaak and Phoebe Pryce as Katya. Unfortunately, the writers have simply pieced together a hotch-potch jigsaw of Shostakovich’s key life moments and then created a chatty script in the hopes it will serve to bring the great man’s travails to life for a presumably under-informed audience. The intention is commendable but the results, decidedly hit and miss.

HOLY FOOL (a title which made little sense to me), meanders for nearly 2 hours 30 minutes including interval and continues at Park Theatre until 10th October.

Holy Fool Tickets