REVIEW: THE SILENCE OF SNOW by Mark Farrelly at Tabard Theatre 29th March 2023

‘The single best performance from an actor I’ve seen all year’ ★★★★ ½

Offering a dramatic portrayal of the life and times of much-neglected English writer Patrick Hamilton, Mark Farrelly’s The Silence of Snow runs a gauntlet of comedy and tragedy to deliver an enrapturing drama that is characterised by the single best performance from an actor I’ve seen all year.

A one-man show that is anything but one note, Farrelly’s script and performance captures the full breadth of both Hamilton’s life and the many disparate characters within it. From his parents to his lovers to his enemies, Farrelly’s masterful command of voice and movement ensures every character portrayed is memorable and effective, none more so than the character holding it all together: Hamilton himself. For anyone with knowledge of Hamilton’s life or work, the scathing wit, often turned on himself and those who can bear it the least, combined with an intense yet evasive emotional core will feel as true to life as any contemporary characterisation could hope to be.

It would be impossible to spoil such a brilliant performance so I can gladly share the highlights; the near-fatal hit and run incident that maims Hamilton while he’s still in his 20’s jolts you from your seat, a climatic scene where the incredibly drunk author tries to stage an intervention for himself is equal parts grim and witty, and Hamilton’s first bungled experience of sex is done in a slapstick style that manages to feel both bone-crunching and hilarious. In all this the lighting and sound do their job wonderfully, artfully shifting and establishing mood while bringing the empty stage completely to life in distinct environments. A certain scene involving a painful medical procedure is an immense credit to both the acting and the technical team.

Throughout this highly entertaining adaptation of Hamilton’s life, carefully selected passages from his own work are given spirited voice by Farrelly. Pivotal passages from classics such as ‘Rope’ and ‘Hangover Square’ are invoked at critical and appropriate moments of the drama, and behind these recitations it’s clear that something quite neat is building up. Perhaps too neat.

By the end of the play it is clear that Farrelly’s intent is to squeeze the story of Hamilton’s own life into a narrative identical to one from his own works, wherein a tragic figure once so full of potential wastes away courtesy of a familiar toxic cocktail of alcohol and depression, but while there’s a certain intelligence in this there’s also a certain lack of imagination.

The basic facts of Hamilton’s life can of course not be ignored or fabricated, but up to this point Farrelly has constantly played with the gaps and ambiguities in Hamilton’s life to brilliant effect, fleshing out aspects of the dead writer that we could otherwise never appreciate. Why not then play with the ending, to find something novel to say beyond grim defeat when Hamilton looks back on his own life? In a work so subtly shot through with Farrelly’s own impressive artistic voice, this ending feels like a weak surrender to the pessimism, even nihilism, that increasingly characterised Hamilton’s work as he came closer to death. For a drama that had been so inspiring up till this point it feels lacking.

But this is the only criticism I can offer for what is easily some of the best theatre you can see this year. If Farrelly is ever within 50 miles of you, you owe it to yourself to go and see him perform.

Images: Steve Ullathorne

The Silence of Snow at Tabard Theatre 29th March 2023

Written and Performed by Mark Farrelly

Directed by Linda Marlowe

Schedule of performances by Mark Farrelly can be found here http://markfarrelly.co.uk/2015-schedule/

Reviewed by Harry Conway