from a zany comedy to a well examined look at how mental health
The first thing to note is the confusing title of The Huns. When seeing it for the first time written down, the immediate reaction (especially for Disney fans) could lead to thinking that it's a different perspective of Mulan where the Huns feature. But when you get beyond the initial reaction and look at the storyline that unfolds, we forget that first reaction and get hooked into the action from the word go. What is also interesting is that initially it starts off as a strong comedy, but as the characters get more and more manic on the Zoom call with the CEO not being there - it seems harder to work out until halfway through whether the audience should laugh or not. Until this particular revelation occurs, it changes from a zany comedy to a well examined look at how mental health in the office tends to be treated in a negative way. This in turn led to an appreciation of the strength of each performer as they effectively switched from one genre to another.
Jamie Cavanagh, Breanna Dillon and Cass Van Wyck take on these three co-workers with very different lives. The man who is desperate to leave to go on his stag do (Cavanagh), the head of the team who is so efficient she doesn't sleep (Dillon) and the new temp who has her own issues (Van Wyck). Together they tackled this challenging script well and share a wonderful rapport. Cavanagh showed the frustration in having to be there at the meeting when called in early for witnessing the robbery and held his own as he was outnumbered at several points by the equal frustrations from both women as they kept telling him to leave. Dillon portrayed her character with an energetic false positivity and extremely driven focus as her lack of sleep affected her gradually as things progressed, making her interesting to watch. Whilst Van Wyck showcased some strong work as she tried to keep everyone grounded without thinking of herself.
The Huns has strong potential to be a play that will go far after the fringe.
