Black comedy lacks subtlety

DUMB SHOW, Coliseum company at Grange Arts Centre
WE look at our tabloid press and point the finger about its disgustingly low ethical standards.

Then we conveniently overlook the point that many of those launching the tedious public inquiries to investigate the press are fiddling their expenses and simply seizing the rare and vindictive chance to get their own back.

The public enjoys the show — until the next celebrity scandal surfaces. Which is where “Dumb Show” comes in

Former journalist Joe Penhall’s satire on this mess of a society is an odd choice for the Coliseum.

First seen at that bastion of righteous indignation, London’s Royal Court, the black comedy sees a seedy but harmless popular entertainer stung by a couple of scuzzball undercover reporters for a News of the World-style expose — and is as unpleasant as it is confused about whether it is funny or merely furious.

Entertainer Barry (Steve Huison) has been invited by a couple of private bankers (Kate Coogan and Leigh Symonds) to become their client — a deal sweetened by the offer of a lucrative speaking engagement.

When we next see Barry and the woman, Liz, he is drunk, making passes and offering her drugs, and the trap is closed. Liz and Greg reveal who they are and set about coercing the fading star to admit “in the public interest” his crimes. The interest is, of course, entirely in furthering their careers and selling papers.

What Penhall does very well is the kind of dialogue used in belligerent interviews (and courts): fairly innocuous grey-area statements are turned sharply black or white — mainly black — and end up making a monster of whoever said them, in this case in pursuit of a string of juicy quotes.

Barry fights back — which is where the play starts to seem stretched beyond adequacy.

Kevin Shaw’s production is a rather hit-and-miss affair; it too doesn’t quite know how funny the show is (or even if it is), and this isn’t helped by a lack of range in Steve Huison’s performance.

His fight-back rant against the journos sounds more like drunken rambling than anger.

While Huison still seems to be finding the character’s core, Coogan and Symonds go the other way, making their characters cold-hearted, lip-licking villains as soon as they reveal their true purpose.

They are three shallow characters in search of a moral centre they never quite find. So the play isn’t exactly subtle, and it isn’t exactly fun either.






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