Edinburgh Fringe 2024
Shellshocked – An Explosive New Play
Richard Jordan Productions, 412, with Harrogate Theatre, LBT, Ketchup, Pleasance
Genre: Drama, New Writing, Theatre
Venue: Pleasance Courtyard
Festival: Edinburgh Fringe
Low Down
PTSD, jealousy, manipulation all in the mix in this tremendous new work.
Review
Shell shock was a term coined during World War I to describe the reaction to the intense warfare experienced by soldiers. It often had stigma attached, having connotations of cowardice. The brutality of World War II saw a new swathe of soldiers suffering its effects. Soldiers returning from WWII would be encouraged to man up and leave their experiences on the battlefields. Some 80 years on, we have gained a better insight into the condition, now more accurately described as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
It feels immediately claustrophobic. The Pleasance Courtyard’s Bunker is arranged as a three-quarters round, with an arched ceiling and wall. It is airless and stifling. Perfect.
There is a desk, a bureau, a chair, a rug, various hanging canvasses and a blank canvas on an easel. A radio plays. A man, middle-aged – perhaps older – ill-fitting clothes, brooding, paces the room. There is a knock at the door but he does not respond. A further knock and eventually a younger man enters of his own volition. He has a smart, short haircut, and is wearing an ill-fitting suit.
Exuding deference (immediately employing ‘sir’) and enthusiasm, the younger man (Wesley) offers a handshake, declined. Instead the host (Lupine) requires Wesley to remove his shoes. This is the first of many powerplays executed by Lupine, designed to set Wesley off balance and to establish status. Lupine takes the shoes and smells them carefully, pronouncing the polish to be cherry blossom. Wesley is unable to confirm or deny this, conceding that his mother has polished them for him. The implication that he perhaps is a mummy’s boy further places Wesley on the back foot.
A series of pedantic exchanges ensue, with Lupine demanding a minutiae of specific details concerning mundanity. Lupine even corrects Wesley regarding the colour of his own eyes – all part of Lupine’s web. The handshake, when it comes, is on Lupine’s terms, with a Trump-like powerplay thrown in. Wesley can be in little doubt as to his place.
Lupine insists that Wesley take a drink with him, despite Wesley’s obvious discomfort. We learn that Wesley, 19 and discharged from the army eight months previously, is seeking an apprenticeship with Lupine, a renowned local artist, and that this visit is tantamount to an interview. Wesley has sent Lupine his portfolio as a precursor and Lupine casually states that he has burnt it for fuel, such was its worthlessness. The status is temporarily broken – Wesley is outraged at the audacity and unfairness. But is this just part of Lupine’s cat and mouse game ? Having provoked a reaction, Lupine, now smiles, informs Wesley that this was a test and that his portfolio is safe.
Lupine continues to dominate proceedings, triggering Wesley’s PTSD by probing about the war and his dead father, evoking vulnerability, then in an alarming escalation asks to hold Wesley, seemingly to comfort him. Having taken Wesley to such depths, he becomes the self-appointed saviour for Wesley’s entire family, offering him £10 per day wages, indeed paying him in advance for today. Contextually, Wesley’s father earned less than half that in a whole week. Wesley is elated, but disconcertingly for the observer his duties have manifestly not been discussed.
The status powerplay continues unabated, with Lupine constantly changing his mind about how Wesley should address him and manipulatively pressing further alcohol on him. Having made Wesley sit down, he stands behind him and massages his shoulders.
He asks Wesley to remove his clothes (the terms of engagement ought to have been agreed) but Wesley pushes back, the tension palpable. Lupine asks Wesley to pass him his glasses from a drawer, knowing full well that he will discover a gun. He shows Wesley photos of naked women, deliberately concealing one though. Lupine says that he wants Wesley to use the gun to blow his brains out over the blank canvas to create his magnum opus. Wesley is no longer certain what is real.
Lupine asks Wesley to fetch another bottle of cognac from the house, again knowing that he will discover this time the indeed burnt portfolio. The reason for the concealed photograph becomes apparent. Wesley, suffering the effects of alcohol, triggered PTSD and now intense loss, is borderline broken. The pace of the performance ramps up several gears to its conclusion.
Lupine, it transpires, is envious of Wesley’s family structure, despite their poverty. He also believes that great art comes from a dark place and envies Wesley’s wartime experiences, believing them to the inspiration behind Wesley’s evidently superior artwork. We now see that while Wesley is damaged by war, so is Lupine in a very different way.
The whole show is nothing less than a triumph. It is dramaturgically superbly structured, the script sharp and layered, the direction measured and subtle (both Philip Stokes). Lee Bainbridge delivers a masterclass as Lupine, being the embodiment of manipulation and coercion. The quite excellent Jack Stokes as Wesley allows thoughts to land, is vulnerable and contains his anger.
Despite Lupine’s game playing, it is left to Wesley to deliver a knock-out blow, when he tells Lupine that he will never create the magnum opus that he craves, because it must come from a place of love, rather than darkness. Lupine is left to reflect that he is destined for mediocrity, shades of Salieri in Amadeus. See this play while you can.