Traverse theatre is one of Edinburgh’s lesser-known theatres. Tucked in beside the domineering shape of Usher Hall, I must have walked past it countless times without knowing it was there. If you venture through its doors, however, you are treated to Scotland’s most exciting and contemporary theatre. On Thursday night it’s where I was treated to a showing of Who Killed My Father adapted from the novel by Édouard Louis.
Set in a small French town, a son recounts visiting his father for the final time. We glide from present to past as childhood memories surface before disappearing once more. The novel which was written as a letter from son to father renders itself well to being a monologue. We get a sense of the father’s huge looming drunken presence of the son’s childhood before due to various industrial accidents he crumples into himself until he is left bed bound and small.
Moments of dark humour puncture the tension throughout although it steadily builds towards the play’s climax. The father-son relationship goes through many transformations: from classical resentment due to the treatment of the son’s mother, to a more nuanced take on masculinity where small clues suggest the father was more than he seemed, then understanding comes between the two men before we are left with the son’s howling grief for his father.
The grief is not just familial, however, but also political. Who Killed My Father is a commentary on the state of France, how subsequent presidents and prime ministers failed the working-class towns of the North and moreover the individual people that live there. It is a powerful message, but I am unsure that this political context that is so specific to France translated to a British audience. As the play went on it its Frenchness became much clearer, but the first half could have been set anywhere. When the son impersonated his parents, they sounded Northern English which further uprooted the play. Perhaps they were aiming for an idea of universality, but it was not entirely successful.
Michael Marcus as the son gave a sensitive performance which integrated dance and fluid movements. The lighting was well designed helping us to move through son’s memories and even at times using shadow puppetry.
Despite some issues in its setting, Who Killed My Father is a work of extreme power and fragility. It made the political personal.
Traverse Theatre, May 12-13 2023
Image by Emily Macinnes provided via press release