One of the world's thickos leads us through the best and worst of life's ugliest oddities, his family.
Rick Bland wants you to meet Rudolph. He's more than a little slow and shares a name with a fictional Christmas character, so the kid's had his fair share of mockery. He's a grown up now and on his way to his mother's funeral but he retains that childlike innocence he's never been able to grow out of. Moving seamlessly from the present to the past, we meet Rudolph's caring but confused parents, and his sister, as he makes his way home to 'plant' his Mama in the ground.
An intellectually challenged individual stumbling through life unwittingly coming up with a profound reasoning for his situations will inevitably draw comparisons to Forest Gump. And Thick is Forest Gump-ish, but it's stripped of the cheese and doesn't seek to create anything theatrically beautiful like Hollywood does.
Instead, creator Rick Bland wants to make to us laugh and point out some of life's ugliness without overloading his audience with how cruel people can be. His play is full of contrasts that make his point easy to digest, and a bluntness that is so frank, it's hard not to laugh. Rudolph's mean mother is matched by his adorable father, while his patient sister handles her brother with more care and honesty that anyone else. Her story is the dark undercurrent of this seemingly light-hearted comedy.
There is also a deep appreciation for language in Bland's production. Mama is never 'buried' and no one runs away from Rudolph, they only 'play tag' or 'hide and seek'. It's not just Rudolph's way of understanding the world but a plain way of expressing the way we try to make sense of the things that hurt.
The cast are uniformly excellent in every role they play and are further supported by Phil Eddolis' comedy set design and Dr Seuss-like props. This sweet, big-hearted display of affection for one of life's underdogs is exactly the buoyant, thought-provoking theatre you need on a weekday evening.
Thick runs at New Diorama until 1st October.
Click here for Theatre in London
Click here for Things to do in London
Add an event
Frieze Art Fair to launch new section for young galleries in 2012
Frieze have today announced details for the 2012 edition, their tenth art fair in London. Taking place...