Surprisng Theatre Finds--Fringe at its Finest

In case my readers haven’t noticed… I’m a huge Doctor Who fan. My father first forced me to watch it over a break when I was home from school, and suddenly, we found ourselves hooked. It is now our number one father/daughter activity (replacing our previous obsession with Tiger Woods Wii golf). Thus, you can imagine my surprise when my friends and I decided to watch a random play and it turned out to be Doctor Who themed! Our professors encouraged us to all see a “fringe” theatre show that was outside our course curriculum. Fringe basically means non-mainstream, so big lavish West End performances such as Bend It Like Beckham or Book of Mormon would not be classified as fringe. Realizing we had some free time that afternoon, we headed to the Royal Court Theatre, which is not as fringe as theatre could get, but we saw a brand new play called Violence and Son (its first performance was at this theatre on June 3).

From the very start, this show defied my traditional ideas about theatre. At Stratford-Upon-Avon, we attended a theatre that was in-the-round, but it only had seating on three sides of the stage—the back part had a balcony and other staging that prevented seats behind the actors. This playing space at the Royal Court was completely surrounded by the audience. It felt like we just walked into a normal room, with a circle in the center that was maybe fifteen feet in diameter. The audience got to sit in the classic white lawn chairs that we’ve all seen at every backwoods country barbeque. Immediately, the tone was set that this was no Broadway musical—and it was not going to be about the royal family.

Liam, the lead male character, is obsessed with Doctor Who (and is one stellar Matt Smith look-alike). I was totally impressed with his skill in replicating Smith’s interpretation of the Doctor. From his hand clenching as he fidgeted with how his pants were fitting over his knees down to the quick, snarky responses to questions, he convinced me that he was a younger version of Matt Smith. He even delivered the line “bowties are cool” perfectly. After the show, when we saw the actors walking out of the theatre, they said they could tell we were Who fans because of the laughter they received from that line.

Violence and Son took me through the whole gauntlet of emotions. From laughing uproariously at the Who references and Liam’s awkward attempts at flirting to cringing at the drunken ravings of his alcoholic father, I was riveted from the opening moment. Deep important questions were brought up and worked out right before our eyes, all in the living room of this trashy, dysfunctional family. It was hard to watch at times because of the painful nature of the subject matter. It brought up important issues, such as the way women are often molested in pubs or clubs without any justice being given, addiction, the contagious nature of violence, hereditary misogyny, and rape.

Although I have loved the plays we have seen so far, I think this play was in the running for being my favorite so far. Victim-shaming played a key role in the play, and although rape is a subject that always makes me slightly nauseous, the subject matter was handled well but still forcefully enough to bring attention to the issue. The framing of the play forced the audience to see the ridiculous nature of how society handles rape. In the first act, when Liam’s father blatantly shoves him against a wall so hard that Liam gets a gash on his head, Suze (the father’s girlfriend) comes in and begins to immediately question Liam. She asks him several times if he’s sure that Vile (the father) pushed him or whether perhaps he just slipped. She says, “And all your hormones are going? All your adrenaline? Sometimes things get a bit mixed up” and later “What we’re saying is, you might’ve got things wrong Liam. Maybe, in the mix-up, you thought/ your dad had done things--”

Then, in the second act, the same scene is mimicked, only this time it is with Liam and Jen, whom he has had a crush on for the entire play. It is revealed that Liam snuck into bed with her last night (she had spent the night at his house) and even though she said no several times, had gone ahead and had sex with her. He had woken up cheerful and “over-the-moon,” but she was horrified upon realizing that he had raped her. Though she had been interested in a relationship and cuddling that night, she did not want to go all the way. Fearful of what might happen if she tried to refuse more forcefully, she hadn’t screamed or tried to fight him off. Liam at one point demands if a woman can lead you up to the door with flirting and then not seal the deal (“is that fair?”). However, the worst moment of this scene comes when Liam repeats Suze’s words from the previous act, saying to Jen about her refusal last night: “Maybe you thought you said it. But you actually/ didn’t.” When the words were delivered, it sounded as though every audience member in the room had been punched in the gut; a collective groan went up in the silence that followed.

I loved this play so much that I purchased the script right after the performance, as did two of my friends. This was a diamond in the rough, and we all ran back to recommend that the professors make it mandatory to watch immediately. As hard as it was to sit through the language and the disgusting treatment of women, it was vital to receiving the message. Experiencing the complexity and heartbreak of a situation such as this is something each person should feel at some point in his or her life to grasp this type of trauma.

A pre-show shot: we didn't know what to expect!