REVIEW: THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM at Theatre at the Tabard until 2 December 2023

“The whole world is at our door while we’re shuffling off into the darkness.” ★★★

It’s 2023, so what’s a white, rich, public school boy to do? Turn his face towards Death and his back on a world that no longer seems interested in him, of course.

The Elephant in the Room begins with 19-year-old Ashley Davenport (psychologically) renouncing his inheritance and shutting himself up in a cushy retirement home. He is determined to enter the “fourth stage” of Hindu mysticism and gain enlightenment. A clash of generational humour and social critique ensues.

Fraser Anthony plays Ashley as the innocent lead of an Edwardian drawing-room comedy, a fitting choice.

The retirement quartett is excellent across the board, a study in contrasting character types: Judith (Kristin Milward), the eccentric almost-sculptor, is fed up with life and ready to “pass over” to the angels—if only they’d stop sending her back. Johnny (Craig Crosbie) is as lecherous and unrepentant at 94 as he was at 30. Rosemary is wistfully proud of her school mistress past, but perhaps regrets remaining a virgin. (“There’s no need to dwell on that now Rosie, it’s not going to change over tea.”) All have a fantastic ear for comedy, but Stephen Omer’s David is the highlight of the group: as an ex-librarian human Eeyore, almost every line earns laughs. “Greetings from Hell,” he welcomes Ashley—“I’m trying to catch diabetes.”

The trio playing the home’s staff have been given more difficult material to tackle. Nurse “Mr. Krish” (as his Western patients insist on calling him) struggles to square his philosophical convictions with a spiralling “mild” alcoholism (Yasser Kayani). The young Kim-Ly (Lee Jia-Yu) and Miguel (Baptise Semin) bond over the perils of their illegal immigration status and traumatic pasts. While the retirees get to banter about quirks of English middle-class life, they shoulder themes of racism, sexual abuse and suicide.

It’s here, in the tonal clash, that the production falters.

The intent, perhaps, is to underline the hypocrisy and narrow outlook of the privileged English characters. But the effect too often leaves the international characters out in the cold, excluded from the easy laughs of other scenes: Baptise Semin plays his Miguel touchingly, with quiet gentleness and conviction, but you could feel the audience uncertain how to react to the horrific past he shares after the sit-com laughs that came before. Lee Jia-Yu’s Kim-Ly dreams of scientific study and the stars, but her plot is almost entirely one of seduction and (ethically justified?) gold digging. A production that ends with the only young female character being called a calculating bitch needs to pitch its steps down that path very carefully.

Thematically, writer Peter Hamilton has drawn from multiple religious wells—Lord Ganesh, New Age angels, Jesus Christ all make an appearance. The titular elephant holds equally heavy symbolism: the foreign being tamed for its English owners’ amusement, until it frees itself from their control. These elements are beautifully illustrated with evocative video design (Oldham) and ominous soundscaping (Tate), but their exact point often remains unclear.

Director Ken McClymont has put the Tabard’s stage to good use, cleverly transforming the space with re-arrangements of white-and-black cubes.

The Elephant in the Room has many showcase moments—dialogue and deliveries that truly couldn’t be improved. But the whole does not yet quite gel: Thankfully, the 2-hour running time holds plenty of material that could be workshopped and cut into a tighter, tonally clearer show.

Read our interview with the writer Peter Hamilton & Director Ken McClymont here

THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM at Theatre at the Tabard 8 Nov - 2 December 2023

Box Office https://tabard.org.uk/whats-on/the-elephant-in-the-room/

Cast

Ashley Davenport: Fraser Anthony

Rosemary Broom: Josie Ayers

Johnny Copthorne: Craig Crosbie

Krish Iyengar: Yasser Kayani

Kim-Ly: Lee Jia-Yu

Judith Wells: Kristin Milward

David Webley: Stephen Omer

Miguel: Baptise Semin

Creatives and Production Team

Playwright: Peter Hamilton

Director: Ken McClymont

Producer: Ross McGregor

Lighting Designer: Mark Dymock

Costume Designer: Josie Ayers

Sound Designer: Hamish Tate

Video Designer: Jonathan Oldham

Set Constructor: Gary Anderson

Assistant Producer and Stage Manager: Lucy Ioannou

Production Photography: The Ocular Creative

Artwork: Susie Hamiton

Reviewed by Anna Clart