Reconnect Theatre’s Doped at the Hill Street Theatre is a fascinating and delightfully crazy study of the relationship between three guys that questions the nature of friendship, the bounds of loyalty and how far you can push people before they crack.
Fascinating and delightfully crazy
Talking of which, it’s also a drug-fuelled 55-minutes of delightful Scottish patter, worth seeing if only to hear the richness of the broad accents and breadth of vocabulary. There are also fine performances in this play, co-written by Sam Stuart Fraser and Sean Fullwood. Adding to the talent is Director Pete Sneddon who says he wanted to create ‘a new, classic format of situational British comedy, in the style of Still Game or Bottom’. And it works.
The story is simple. Faolan and Tinny share a pad, two characters well-crafted and contrasted by Kieran Lee-Hamilton and Sam Stuart Fraser respectively. Faolan is bright, went to university and has a job. Tinny is dim, finds words difficult and has a brain that ticks at the pace of a snail. They form a classic comic double-act and each knows how to play the role to maximum effect. Enter Buzz, played with a raging whirlwind of revolutionary energy by Xander Cowan. Although he abandoned alcohol as an undermining product of the establishment, his consumption of weed and LSD has led him into a world of demons and imaginary figures that only a revolution can wipe out. With all the passion of a firebrand preacher he proclaims his good news about overturning the system, believing himself to be the harbinger of Armageddon. In reality he is just a paranoid drug dealer whom Faolan sees through but Tinny falls for.
On one of his zealous highs he lets it slip that all his money is stored in his dad’s garden shed. Is this an opportunity too good to miss for either of the boys? But what to do? By the end, each has had his own personal apocalypse and established relationships are turned on their head.
Underpinning the play are much broader issues. As Sean Fullwood says, “Stoners are stereotyped and often dismissed members of society… Mental health problems and addiction are sky high. Homelessness is on the rise. Extremism is rising on every side.”
Doped shines a comedic light on these issues and is a splendid piece of theatre.
