Ivories by Riley Elton McCarthy, The Old Red Lion Theatre, 198 St John Street, Angel, London EC1 until 26 July 2025, 2☆☆. Review: William Russell.
Photo Credit: Abbie Sage.
Ivories by Riley Elton McCarthy, The Old Red Lion Theatre, 198 St John Street, Angel, London EC1 until 26 July 2025,
2☆☆. Review: William Russell.
“House of Horrors.”
A handsome set which conjures up a wonderfully decrepit house whose owner is suffering from dementia and dying upstairs are, along with effective lighting and a rather good sound track, probably the best reasons for seeing this turgid horror story directed by Georgie Rankom. Indeed probably the only reasons other than collecting a truly dreadful evening. The play comes garlanded with praise from the Edinburgh fringe which can only suggest the competition was pretty rotten. The playwright plays Sloane, a bisexual writer who has turned up with her botanist husband Gwyn played by Matthias Hardarson because of the forthcoming demise upstairs to discover that things go bump in the night, lights go on and off, the neighbours are possible predatory and there is something lurking in the cellar. If one could make out what Sloane was saying it would help quite a lot when the necessary plot points are being placed but for much of the time Riley Elton Gabbles gabbles meaninglessly. Into this house of possible horrors comes Gwyn's one time lover Beckham played Daniel Neil Ash, an estate agent there to video the place for the benefit of potential buyers, and who still hankers after Gwyn. Like all people who enter houses of horror he naturally fails to do what anybody with half a brain would do and leave having sussed out the situation. Had the play managed to shock, surprise, have something to say or even do anything that even the most formulaic of Hammer movies did it might be worth catching but there really are better places to be. The big disclosure has something nasty to do with Sloane's childhood but just what the human bones botanist Gwynn digs up in the garden have to do with anything passed me by and as for the lady upstairs she never appears, the significanceof the veiled and unveiled portrait is never explained, and the séance they hold is another of the play's mysteries. At least somebody new played by Ashley M Cowles appears towards the end – naturally in a clap of thunder – to add a little frisson to the goings on but it is not enough to save the play. As for the title, I think it has something to do with teeth but it is anybody's guess.
Cast
Riley Elton McCarthy – Sloane.
Matthias Hardarson – Gwyn.
Daniel Neil Ash – Beckham.
Ashley M Cowles – Sinister Neighbour.
Creatives
Director – Georgie Rankom.
Set & Costume Design – Verity Johnson.
Sound Design – Adam Lenson.
Lighting Design – Skylar Turnbull Hurd.
