In a small town Sunday school, Margery is attempting to teach her three students to make puppets as part of the ministry. She's recently widowed and is struggling to raise her quiet son Jason, while handling the attentions both of student Timothy and the overly-handsy Pastor Greg. But when Jason begins a weird relationship with his puppet, Tyrone, everything starts to tumble into chaos.
Robert Askins' american comedy looks at the limitations of faith and good honest American family values with a brutal honesty - in the intimite confines of the Old Fitz theatre, it's a compelling story full of twists and turns, darkly hilarious and very twisted.
As anyone who saw "Appleton Ladies Potato Race" knows, Merridy Eastman has a great skill at appearing joyously demented on stage, and she channels this skill well into the stressed out Sunday school teacher who crosses several ethical boundries on the way to relieving her tensions. Phillip Lynch has the double role of Jason and Tyrone, skillfully splitting the two of them so you really believe his right arm is an entirely different person taking over, and letting Tyrone take the focus as he becomes more and more powerful as an agent of chaos. There's a skill and lack of ego in letting the puppet be the focus rather than the actor drawing attention to themselves. Elsewhere, Ryan Morgan is gleefully driven as the troubled Timothy, Gerard Carroll projects smug complacency as Pastor Greg and Michelle Ny as Jason's protector Jessica is charming, fierce and surprisingly seductive in turns.
Director Alexander Berlarge has previously delivered two great reinventions of modern musicals in Cry Baby and American Psycho - here he gives us a seemingly cosy playroom that turns into a nightmare, mostly providing truth and pace to the piece (although the epilogue feels a little awkwardly placed, and maybe needs to be picked up with more pace after the climax to avoid feeling extraneous). There's great set and costume design from Emma White and lighting and sound design from Phoebe Pilcher
and Daniel Herten. It's a fine production that does credit to a script that could feel snarky or shallow in lesser hands - here all the characters, even the demonic puppet, feel real and three-dimensional. Definitely worth catching.
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