A Fabulous Theatrical Feast

Posted on 9th March 2024

Rob John’s sharply written Hollyhock Trilogy benefits hugely from the acting talent of Dawn Finnerty and Robin McLoughlin, who both breathe life into the characters sketched out in three separate mini-plays focusing on loneliness, loss and love.

In Post, the first play, Finnerty invests Sue with a tragic emptiness reminiscent of Patricia Routledge’s Woman of No Importance, and it is perhaps inevitable that comparisons will be made with Alan Bennett’s Talking Heads. However, in Gravity, the second play of the evening, Rob John extends the possibilities of what can be done with a monologue, pushing on past the obvious narrative arc to offer up a tale altogether messier and involving than the shock reveal we’ve come to expect from the form. After Frankie Mulligan’s last night in the circus, John could have left it there, but instead he gives Frankie a delicious glimmer of hope. In the final duologue, Hollyhocks, Finnerty reveals a chameleon like ability to deftly switch from light tragic-comedy to something altogether darker. McLoughlin’s touching portrait of a gentle, yet damaged, man was just as strong, and all the more remarkable given his involvement with the production was at the eleventh hour. With no disrespect intended towards the absent Owen Evans, I find it hard to imagine anyone else in the role.

It’s only every so often that the writing and cast of a production are so equally matched, their synergistic combination creating something so much greater than the sum of the parts. It’s certainly a rare treat to see such bold, sure footed writing so expertly delivered. In reviewing Feast Theatre’s Canada Boys in 2022, I described it as one the finest productions seen at the Corn Hall for a very long time. It would appear that two years on, I am compelled to repeat myself.