What a surprise. Who would have thought that watching a one man show about an ape that becomes a man, would be so shattering, but I can honestly say that at the end of Red Peter I was emotionally gutted.
Red Peter is an ape who after being trapped by humans decides his only method of escape is either the zoo or the bright lights and wooden boards of the stage. The stage wins through and a Music Hall star is born.
We follow Red Peter through his Five Acts of Transformation and one is both shocked and touched by the bravado in the broken creature that we see emerging. He compliments the sailor who taught him to drink on how he never got angry with his pupils slow progress, saying that even when the sailor would set him on fire with his pipe, he always put it out with his huge hands. The piece is full of such stories, fondly remembered but consisting of horrible human behaviour, laced with atrocities but always covered with a healthy dose of Vaudevillian laughter.
The consummate professional, Red Peter uses his props imaginatively and to powerful effect. His modish red handkerchiefs become blood when he is shot by the hunters who capture him and his performing traveling trunk becomes his cage. Most powerfully is the hat and coat hanging from a stand to which he speaks to as he would a friend. The loneliness of his unique position is set up and perpetuated by the forlorn and wistful nature of these props cleverly if somewhat tragically.
Gordon Duffy McGhie impresses as Red Peter, his rounded movements and animalistic breathing combining magically with his verbose speech and fruity vowels making him seem truly half man half ape. However it is when he is totally ape that the most moving moments take place. As he crouches over his dead mothers body, the guttural animal noises pushing through him are more desperate and direct an expression of pain and grief than any human language could be.
Although this is based on a story by Franz Kafka, this performance of Red Peter is something truly unique. Co-writers Gordon Duffy McGhie, Rob Bollard and Lawrence Sache have created a cleverly constructed exploration into what it is to aspire to be human and the horrifying consequences of attaining humaness. Red Peters final speech to The Academy will subvert your expectations and leave you feeling truly shaken. To feel such a physical reaction to a piece of performance is a rare thing and something truly special and something which everyone should experience.
