Still crazy after all these years? That could be the sub-title for a play that is wrapped in complex, dramatic and entertaining episodes while retaining elements of both the serious and the silly.
Jacqueline Harper, who directed this production of David Lindsay-Abaire’s play – first performed in 1999 – has managed to include the suitably crazy aspects. These are then set alongside an exploration of a woman’s serious ‘psychogenic’ amnesia following a stroke. So Claire (Nicola Russel) starts every single day with a blank. Who is she, where is she, who are these other people, and where are her children?
The ever awkward, and slightly academic, Richard (Giles Newlyn-Bowmer), who works in a hospital, has compiled a book all about Claire’s past. So now he will not need to repeat her life story every morning. She ‘re-discovers’ Richard as her married partner and learns that they have a son, Kenny (Ethan Dryer).
But Kenny has teenage ‘issues’ and starts combing the freeways with his mates. Pretty soon, he’s in trouble with the cops. Or are they fake cops? Yep, it gets complicated!
Meanwhile, another woman, Gertie (Susanne Crosby), has suffered a stroke. But she can still punch well above her weight.
Pretty soon, in this melee, everything – and everyone – gets ever more crazy. The cops want to press charges on the teenagers’ reckless driving. ‘We clocked you doing 84 in a 50 limit.’ But are the police really cops? And can’t they smell the marijuana?
There are knives and guns. Dogs are barking. An old man holds up an orange puppet which then starts to speak. But are there any ghosts around? There’s a packet of cornflakes on the fridge. There’s some music in the background. Someone likes the Rolling Stones.
That delightful slurring accent of ‘Funny Mirror’ soon turns into ‘Fuddy Meers’ (and hence the title of the play). Meanwhile, the props – including the house and the car – are delightfully and appropriately ridiculous.
Things don’t stop getting ever more crazy. A limping, lisping man, Zach (Dan Dryer), crawls out from under Gertie’s bed. He reckons he used to be Claire’s husband.
Who is pretending to do what and to whom? Sometimes one identity is not what it seems. One man says he had burnt the house down. But he claims he has had counselling since then. After all, as one of the characters admits: surely there’s good and bad in all people, isn’t there?
The audience need to work hard and listen close up. You could call it post-modern. The characters are not always fixed or predictable. In places, even the puppets start talking.
Fuddy Meers is no easy play to bring to the stage. Written by David Lindsay-Abaire (a Pulitzer prize winner in 2007) this production by Tony Brownings has crafted a suitable backdrop to the performance. Meanwhile, Jacqueline Harper’s direction of Fuddy has brought together both the serious and the silly amidst characters’ shifting memories and identities. Tough theatre done well.
The Barn Theatre, Southwick (March 15th 2024)
Photos: Miles Davies
