There are 125 suicides each week within the UK and 75% are male. That’s round 5,000 males per 12 months taking their lives. 5,000 who, for no matter motive, really feel they’d moderately deliver all of it to an finish moderately than face one other day of their ache. This brings us to Harry’s Christmas, Steven Berkoff’s 1985 play, revived right here by director Scott Le Crass and ThreeDumb Theatre’s Stephen Smith. As you’ll most likely guess, this isn’t a joyful Christmas providing. It’s downright bleak and one to noticeably keep away from in case you are searching for some excessive vitality Christmas spirit. But it’s a…
Rating
Excellent
Not one to look at should you’re searching for some escapism this Christmas, however if you wish to be moved by a stellar efficiency, then this actually is a present to hunt out.
There are 125 suicides each week within the UK and 75% are male. That’s round 5,000 males per 12 months taking their lives. 5,000 who, for no matter motive, really feel they’d moderately deliver all of it to an finish moderately than face one other day of their ache.
This brings us to Harry’s Christmas, Steven Berkoff’s 1985 play, revived right here by director Scott Le Crass and ThreeDumb Theatre’s Stephen Smith. As you’ll most likely guess, this isn’t a joyful Christmas providing. It’s downright bleak and one to noticeably keep away from in case you are searching for some excessive vitality Christmas spirit. But it’s a play that may make you assume lengthy and laborious about these suicide figures.
Harry, performed by Smith, is 40 and really a lot alone. It’s 4 days earlier than Christmas when he debates whether or not so as to add final 12 months’s playing cards to the six he has obtained this 12 months. Over the subsequent 70 minutes we spend a short second every day with him, as we watch the loneliness and disappointment take additional maintain. All till Christmas Day, when all of it turns into an excessive amount of – an excessive amount of for Harry, and virtually an excessive amount of for the viewers, as he declines deeper into his despair, virtually disappearing into his chair, his life shrinking in entrance of us.
Berkoff’s writing is spot on in drawing out the distress as Harry tries to justify his lack of playing cards, and by extension, his lack of any actual mates. The play could also be near 40 years previous, however it’s maybe extra related than ever at the moment. Much of this is because of Le Crass’ script updates, particularly the usage of a cell phone to reveal how we’re in a single far more in contact than ever, but on the similar time, even additional eliminated bodily – all these individuals immediately contactable by a name, but by no means inside precise attain.
It’s a troublesome watch. But it’s a compelling one, due in no small half to Smith’s efficiency. We at ET have raved many occasions beforehand about his stage presence and Harry’s Christmas is one other so as to add to his spectacular itinerary. As we attain Christmas Day it’s unimaginable to not look away, nonetheless painful it’s, as he drowns his sorrows with alcohol and drugs. It’s a last act that demonstrates why Smith deserves to be seen by greater audiences in 2023.
Le Crass’ directing is equally as much as the duty. The use of a voiceover to signify Harry’s interior monologue is effectively thought of, giving an additional dimension to the one-sided dialog. The resolution to have Smith go away the stage commonly not solely helps separate scenes, however by some means attracts us deeper into his most personal moments. We all of a sudden really feel like eavesdroppers, as he argues on the cellphone with an ex about why they cut up up.
The lighting and sound additional push us deeper into the bleakness; fairly actually so with the lighting, which dims as every day passes, till lastly we’re watching Harry in his chair with darkness throughout him. The ominous music additionally raises the stress one other notch for every day that passes.
Harry’s Christmas just isn’t a present for the light-hearted, however it is going to go away you deeply moved. And for a lot of it is going to make you both see extra of your self than you want to within the character, or make you additional think about the loneliness of others over Christmas. It’s a play that might go so horribly fallacious in lesser arms, however the mixture of Smith and Le Crass elevates it to at least one that may be a compelling, coronary heart wrenching watch.
Written by: Steven Berkoff
DIrected by: Scott Le Crass
Sound design and music by: Julian Starr
Produced by: ThreeDumb Theatre
Harry’s Christmas performs at King’s Head Theatre till 24 December. Further data and bookings might be discovered right here.