Inescapable
Waterfront Theatre
September 7, 11-13 and 15, 2019
Tickets at vancouverfringe.com
Posted September 6, 2019
Playwright/performer Martin Dockery is an acquired taste and I’ve acquired it. If you have, too, then don’t miss Inescapable, performed with Jon Paterson. Two friends. One – successful, married, gainfully employed, home-owner – is throwing a Christmas party. The other – not so fortunate. The two of them have escaped the festivities in the other room and get talking. What follows is loopy and looped: that is, dialogue goes round and round as they never really get to the heart of the matter: their friendship and the host’s failing marriage. Dockery’s character, hands flying and chin jutting, is manic: “Don’t tell me to calm down”. Paterson’s character, rational and more relaxed, is “a little bit high”. Maybe.
It’s an interesting and often hilarious experiment in how we can focus on something completely inconsequential in order to avoid talking about what really matters. Dockery lays it out with the skill of an open-heart surgeon – and succeeds in making it darkly funny.