Returning to the Fringe again with new writing in the form of And The Little One Said, Minotaur Theatre Company have produced a dark comedy show that is guaranteed to shock: a perverted, rich-kid drama with a nineties Britpop soundtrack. The show rings in the same key as Saltburn and The Talented Mr Ripley, wherein everything you thought you knew about a person falls away in the face of unforeseen tragedy.
Written and produced by Mai Stacey, And The Little One Said features a small, well-meshed ensemble cast including Jamie Radcliffe as the obscure and awkward Cedric, Jessica Knight as the shy and obliging Rose, Finn Kennedy Macmillan as the crude and flirtatious Henry, Abbie Want as the self-assured and sensible Sasha, and Joseph McCloskey as Sasha’s older and slightly depraved uncle.
Upon walking into the venue, a sleeping and half-naked Henry is sprawled on a sofa, clothes strewn over the set, a bra hanging over the side with coquettish abandon. As the action begins, the audience is soon introduced to a tight-knit group of posh friends, all itching to spend two lavish weeks of a hot English summer at the cavernous country estate belonging to Sasha’s reclusive uncle, who almost never receives any visitors. Yet, as they arrive at the manor house — elated with the colossal abundance of rooms and treated to a ‘magical’ tour of its labyrinthine corridors — they soon realise that all is not quite what it seems.
Indeed, the show’s primary focus is on the unexpected murder of one of the members of their party, after which the group must swiftly devise a plan to avoid ending up in deep trouble. But underneath the throes of murderous and conniving activity lies a tangled web of secrets and revelations, which threatens to tear a tight-knit group of friends limb from limb.
At times the events may seem a little over-the-top, and the characters’ complexities not entirely fleshed out to the fullest — but with a run-time of fifty-five minutes, the action must unfold with a certain velocity that perhaps cannot be buffered with too much background context. Amidst attention stunts, alcohol-fuelled games of truth or dare, and a series of ill-timed jokes, And The Little One Said offers a perverse, dramatic and darkly comedic roller coaster that dishes out some disturbing truths and errs on the dark side of kinky fantasies.
And the Little One Said has finished its Fringe run.
Image by Mai Stacey, provided to The Student as press material.
