Structured as a series of five vignettes revolving around criminal scenarios, an inspiringly askew script by writer/director Charles Edward Pipe and a more-than-game cast sells the material for all it’s worth. Jack Gray, Flinn Andreae, and Jaz Tizzard blast through the scenes (and multiple characters) with a winning, determined abandon. The audience encounters would-be American tough guys, collection agents, septuagenarian smugglers, East End gangsters, and Western outlaws, all brought to vivid, pithy life.
Cinematic references abound-a whiff of the Coen Brothers’ sardonic genre exercises, Tarantino’s postmodern pastiches, Guy Ritchie’s rough-humoured, edgy laddishness and even, in one remarkable instance, the tortured whimsy of Woody Allen. Pipe expertly folds all the ingredients into his own original stew. It’s clear he has an abiding affection for those on the fringe, scrabbling for any piece of the good life.
Time after time, objectives are upended by interpersonal dynamics, unruly and boisterous. An intended bank robbery derails as the central couple, succumbing to nerves, squabbles over perceived slights and character flaws, collapsing into murderous accusation and acrimony. An agent for a loan shark discovers one of his targets is an old school acquaintance. The simmering discontent of long-standing marriage chafes under the exhaustion and anxiety of an extended nautical journey. A wise guy extortionist struggles with his thick assistant and uncooperative victim. Three survivors of a ten-strong gang, reeling from a robbery gone wrong, wrestle over the distribution of ill gains. All life bends towards the ruthless and the cutthroat.
In almost every sequence, Pipe manages a skilful queasy balance between implied violence and comic dialogue. The polarity provides continual tension and suspense to each section, an audience trepidatiously awaiting the fateful moment when the absurd will suddenly give way to the brutal. Pipe even manages to uncover, in some cases, real heartbreak under the bluster.
Gray gets the most mileage out of his array of characters, throwing himself heartily into the broadest reaches of his personality. He is fearless in showcasing the more disagreeable attributes. In the final passage, he manages to extract more comic gold out of a slowly-expiring gang member than should be humanly possible. All three performers play off one another beautifully, though, a tight-knit ensemble. Even a moment of corpsing (or what looked very much like it), when Gray and Andreae seemed to flub the delivery of a tandem line, was good-naturedly incorporated, expertly and endearingly sidestepping awkwardness.
While all scenarios are well-observed, a few are more focused and sharp than others, unavoidable in an anthology. For me, the first two blistering narratives best synthesised the hilarity with the danger. But all are delivered with brio and commitment by a cast whose enthusiasm breaks over the audience like a tsunami.
{🎟 AD – PR invite – Tickets were gifted in exchange for an honest review}
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