Low Down
American Poodle is in fact two pieces linked by a common theme: the relationship between England and America.
Review
In the first Guy Masterson takes it upon himself to inform us about the American Revolution. Masterson’s inventive touches (including an interesting Welsh subplot!?) keep us guessing exactly how legitimate this history lesson is. But what really sustains the piece is his energetic, multiple role-playing performance, slipping effortlessly between objective historical narration and comic portraits of notable historical figures.
Tempting parallels with recent politics abound, and for the most part Masterson lets us draw our own conclusions. When American Poodle does get contemporary it feels disappointingly trite. Instead of continuing its detailed historical approach up to the present day, the piece cobbles together a rather lazy condemnation of the Bush administration by way of a conclusion.
Part 2, Splayfoot, written by Brian Parks, is a gently satirical collection of observations made by an American businessman in London. The script’s adherence to national stereotypes is pretty complacent, but its tendency to go off on an absurd tangent keeps things ticking over. Our tourist notes a British custom as mundane as standing on the right of escalators and before we know it we’ve spiralled into a fantastically apocalyptic vision of big-butted immobility on the other side of the Atlantic. David Calvitto comes close to summoning up the spontaneous delivery needed to pull these flights of fancy off.
Overall this is a moderately entertaining 60 minutes. It feels more like anthropology than theatre - Masterson’s characters are accessories to the history lesson and Splayfoot is a thinly disguised list of cultural differences. With this in mind it’s a great shame the show has little new or challenging to say about Anglo-American relations.
Reviewed by HC 19.08.07
