Brighton Fringe 2025
The Man Who Was Thursday
The Department Of Ulterior Motives
Genre: Absurd Theatre, Comedy, Commedia dell'Arte, Farce, Fringe Theatre, Physical Comedy, Theatre
Venue: The Rotunda Theatre bubble, Regency Square, Brighton BN1 2FG
Festival: Brighton Fringe
Low Down
It seemed to me that the audience demographic at The Rotunda theatre was rather older than I’m used to seeing at a Fringe show. Is that because seniors – like me – are more familiar with the works of G K Chesterton? – big enough fans of the great man’s work to want to see a dramatisation.
Possibly. But then I’m not a policeman, so you shouldn’t put too much trust in my observational skills.
Review
Actually – it felt like I was the only person there who wasn’t a policeman. The stage was littered with them. Seven, in total – all masquerading as Anarchists; with code-names taken from the days of the week.
Chesterton’s story is set in 1908, when it seemed to England that the biggest threat to society came from Anarchists, with their tactics of bombs and assassinations. So the authorities made efforts to infiltrate Anarchist cells, posing as members themselves, to identify the dangerous individuals and prevent their plots from coming to fruition. We’ve seen the same strategy decades later, with police officers working undercover to join left-wing or trade-union organisations.- sometimes living a life of deception for many years and forming relationships; in some cases even having children with their ‘targets’.
There’s an awful lot of deception in this show. Poet Rosamund Gregory has had her house blown up by an Anarchist bomb, and when we first meet her she’s trying to get help from the police. This is an up-to-date production, though – so the white-faced Anarchist bomber is mainly concerned that her device – a ticking assemblage of red coloured sticks of dynamite labelled BOMB – is VEGAN. Likewise the jobsworth copper with his bureaucratic doublespeak – he’s solely concerned that, as Rosamund’s house is (or, rather – was) just outside his station’s operational district, then there’s “no mechanism” which allows him to help.
The whole cast of T.M.W.W.T. wore whiteface – it’s done very much in the style of Commedia dell’Arte. So when the copper explains that the job of the police is to ensure the maintenance of order, a black-cloaked figure walks across the rear, holding a large placard reading STRENGTH AND STABILITY. Very Brechtian.
Actually, now I come to think of it – that was almost the exact ‘Strong and Stable’ slogan used by Theresa May for her disastrous election campaign back in 2019. Writer Samuel Masters has pulled in a lot of contemporary material when he’s put this production together. He’s taken G K Chesterton’s original story, and both adapted and expanded it, to produce an hour of non-stop mayhem that’s both screamingly funny and remarkably thought-provoking.
The writer has created the character of Rosamund Gregory – she’s not part of the original story, and Esther Dracott played her as an impeccably well-spoken upper-middle-class woman. She’s dressed smartly, in a grey waistcoat over white trousers, while the other characters are clad in black cloaks.
Mostly. As the show progressed we met characters in a bizarre collection of outlandish costumes, who we meet when Rosamund is recruited to become a police agent herself; to join “a secret corps of philosophical detectives” dedicated to infiltrating the Anarchist cell.
The Anarchists – I’ll list them, though it was hard to keep track as the actors constantly changed identity to produce a whole gamut of supporting characters – were led by Michael Grant, as Gabriel Symes. Symes is Chesterton’s ‘outsider’ character, who joins the cell, but in Masters’ version he’s an Anarchist aspiring to become the group’s leader – clad unforgettably in a tartan beret and kilt – and sporting what might be the most luxuriant beard ever seen on a Brighton stage.
All the group members were identified by days of the week, as I mentioned –
Zarrina Daneva was Monday
Maria Evans was Tuesday
Oliver Russell was Wednesday
Esther Dracott (as Rosamund) was given the identity of Thursday on joining the cell
Mickey Knighton was Friday
Andrew Bird was Saturday – he appeared to be an old man with crazy hair sprouting out each side of a bald pate; though Bird the actor, in character, finally revealed that he – Saturday – was IN FACT an actor, playing the character of an old man. Confused? You’re meant to be …
Lastly – Bill Griffiths was Sunday.
I feel I have to mention them all by name, as they know where I live, and our cat door is – just – big enough to take one of their bombs …
They also had a hard-working stage assistant in Anna Young – there must have been a huge collection of stuff backstage: costumes, placards, wigs and weapons, needed to keep up with the increasingly frantic action out front. There was even a steering wheel – did I mention the car chase? The show’s absolute mayhem, with everything from a fractious committee meeting to a sword-fighting duel to orchestrate. The direction was shared by writer Sam Masters and by Morgan Corby.
Two nights before, I’d watched Morgan give a stunning performance as Rosencrantz (or was it Guildenstern? They never seemed sure, themselves …) in Tom Stoppard’s play, at The Friends’ Meeting House. Is there no end to this man’s talents?
Masters has changed Chesterton’s ending quite radically – but I won’t give away the production’s denouement. Actually – the show’s plot has so many twists and turns that I couldn’t give you a coherent summary if I tried; you’ll just have to be kept in the dark, as we were.
I finally left The Rotunda, dazed by the dialogue and dazzled by a kaleidoscopic succession of events, each one seemingly more bizarre than the one before, as Rosamund attempted to work out the identity of the mysterious ‘Sunday’.
I’d totally lost track of time, and needed to ask somebody – but do you know what? – I couldn’t find a policeman anywhere.
