The Long Way Home

The cast of The Long Way Home

Company: Eastern Angles

Venue: Sir John Mills Theatre, Ipswich

This review was first posted in February 2010 

There is a germ of a decent idea in Eastern Angles’ first outing of 2010, but it’s disappointing that a company that produced such relevant work as the Margaret Catchpole series, Tithe War!, and Beyond The Breakers seems to have lost direction with The Long Way Home.

Renowned writer Charles Way can only have been having an off-day when he penned this dreary piece about an elderly Greek woman, returning to her roots, who discovers a feral boy living alone in a forest. She adopts the boy and the pair continues on their way, meeting as they go a succession of rice paper-thin supplementary characters.

The story is predictable and simplistic, the dialogue uninspiring and stilted. Not one unexpected plot twist bars the way of the unlikely allies from beginning to end and, after two hours, we are left feeling empty. It’s simply hard to care about what becomes of any of these people.

Amid all the mediocrity, there are several bright spots. Theo Devaney is impressive as the Dog-Boy, Andreas, bringing a warmth and joyousness to bear as his character grows in confidence and complexity from being found shivering and half-naked in a forest to living a full and active life with a new love at journey’s end.

Narrators James Bolt and Jumaan Short handle their multiple roles – including those of puppeteers – with passion and dynamism, bringing a much-needed vigour to the piece, but even they can’t redeem entirely the plodding nature of the proceedings.

Susan McGoun has too impressive a pedigree for anyone to accuse her of being incompetent at her craft; the problem here is that she is badly miscast and probably too rounded  an actor for the pedestrian Old Mother character that Charles Way has given her. Indeed, for a brief few moments during which she breaks out of the two-dimensional template, McGoun shows her much broader skill-set.

Mika Handley’s design palette is quirky with some nice touches and, apart from some clumsy transitions, Steve Cooney’s lighting works well.

The Long Way Home was not commissioned specifically for Eastern Angles; it seems to be targeted at young people and not entirely capable of sustaining the attention of an adult audience. One can only assume that it looked more engaging on paper.

This journey is in need of some grit for traction and a better quality compass.

PAUL COUCH