A Review of Devilish Whimsy Productions’ The Storyteller

What would you do if you could live forever? It’s a thought we have all had I’m sure. We’ve all at one point or another considered this impossible possibility and decided how we would spend an infinite amount of time. In the case of Patrick Painter’s The Storyteller the answer was less interesting than what your imagination may have conjured, for the end of the world means loneliness and environmental breakdown. This is where we found the protagonist, The Storyteller sitting alone on a bench contemplating the end of all things while she was still very much alive. She documented her journey in an old book and waited for the sun to rise, her loneliness being disturbed by the energetic time travelling The Astrologer who wanted to take her gift from her, their relationship being both complex and entirely straightforward.

The thing that was immediately striking about this play was the use of language, the word choices clearly being made to provide the impression of old as time characters. Slowly this age came to light as we learnt about snatches of The Storyteller’s past and how she got where she was when the play opens. These were portrayed in montages, The Storyteller, played by the talented Lily Massey, sometimes watched these interactions and sometimes stepped into the scenes herself, this disparity being an interesting take on the idea of time which was so central to the plot. While these scenes helped to build a wider understanding, they were not necessarily central to the sense of the play. Rather the experience seemed to be more of moment snatched from a person’s life than something with a forward moving narrative. There was no resolution, no true climax, just the endless sense of time without end. The earth was dying and everything else was gone, but The Storyteller was still there.

Visually, this was a play that was clearly directed by a man who knew what he wanted. Writer and director Patrick Painter, had as detailed an image of his set and lighting as he did the language choices in the play. The overall Steampunk feel that was created by the costumes (designed by Lily Massey) seeped into the set, which was arrayed with a range of seemingly random objects. The general sense of clutter was a simple and effective piece of set design, which was brought to life by Libby Alldread’s excellent lighting and the background noise added by Hayden Montfort’s sound design. Overall, the play worked hard to situate its audience into the post apocalyptic setting and was successful in the achievement of this mission.

Pulling us through time, this was a play which sought to be thoughtful and creative while not demanding that audiences sat and considered whether there was an overarching meaning to the story. From the Steampunk feel to the energetic acting, it was an enjoyable trip to the theatre which took this audience member very close to home with its Shropshire setting. Stylistically, there were bold decisions made and the language choices for the most part achieved what they set out to. Perhaps this was a play which changed the minds of those audience members who had dreamed of living forever.