For the first ten minutes of Ben Okri’s the Comic Destiny, I sat there entirely unsure about what was going on. By the end of the performance I had some clarity, but was still confused. While the intention of the theatre group, Lazzi, was to blur the boundaries between performance and real life, in which they succeeded admirably, flaws within the production itself sometimes hindered the overly bold experimentation.
The performance starts off with the actors reading the book to each other. Their attempt to get into character happens all rather too literally, and then the strangeness starts. Words are never simply spoken, but snarled, growled, and screamed. While they sometimes capture Okri’s despair and weirdness, sometimes the whole thing merely descends to overacting. The transitions between the craziness of Okri’s world and the relative calm of real life are a bit clunky and soon become repetitive, but are saved by the impressive physical aspects of the performance. There are times when the rawness of the acting makes you flinch. Of the performers, Charlotte Jarvis was especially impressive, her facial expressions changing in a manner Jim Carrey would be proud of.
The main problem with The Comic Destiny is that it is too long. The performance overran and the extended sequence at the end almost felt like a drama warm-up exercise, rather than a fitting culmination of the play. Scenes pack emotional punch, but are then hampered by being dragged out. The end result is dilution. There is acting power and a boldness of experimentation here that is seriously impressive. However, it is surrounded by material that fails to fully reach the same heights.
