A Very Very Very Dark Matter, Bridge Theatre

[marjorie73]

 

 

I enjoyed the previous plays I've seen at the Bridge Theatre, and I enjoyed the previous play by Martin McDonagh which I saw, so I thought that it would be worth seeing McDonagh's new play, A Very, Very, Very Dark Matter.

It was . . . . interesting.

It features Hans Christian Andersen (Jim Broadbent), Charles Darwin  Dickens, and his foul-mouthed wife and children, a pair of dead, time-travelling Belgians,  and a one-legged Congolese woman in a box.(Johnetta Eula'Mae Ackles) 

I think it's making points about Colonialism, (and sexism), and the lack of acknowledgement of it by the literary greats of the day,  but it seems to be rather  hit and miss - it's funny, and (intentionally) offensive, and the set is intricate and very Goth, but over all, I was left feeling that the play was a bit incoherent, and not quite as clever as it thinks it is.

So - an entertaining 90 minutes, but not a play I'd want to see a second time.