Flawed but fascinating look at a difficult subject

THE POISON MAKER
The Old Red Lion by RONAN MURPHY

THE Alchemy Theatre Company’s production of John Symonds’ period piece The Poison Maker is a fascinating but flawed examination of the relationship between a son and his bohemian single mother, set in London of the early 1900s.
The play centres on the character of Felix, a young man who is the connection between two families, the first of which is the close unit of himself and his mother Pansy. The play focuses on how his introduction to his father’s family sparks off a complex set of responses among the entire cast.
Although based on a true story, The Poison Maker is rooted heavily in surrealism. The cast employ a stylised, exaggerated form of acting that is a fine complement to the barbed wit of Symonds’s script. The characters engage in extraordinarily frank conversation, which is often used to good humorous effect, particularly in the acidic exchanges between Steven Blake’s Mr Tegg and his wife Florence, played by director Viki Carpenter.
James Oliver Wheatley does well in the difficult role of Felix, a young man consumed by Oedipal struggles, in which all the women in the play appear to take on different aspects of the strong mother figure that he is dominated by. Unfortunately, this intriguing aspect of the play is often lost in what is an unashamedly self-indulgent and bloated script. The play’s sub-plots often lapse into incoherency and are left without resolution.
However, the striking thing about The Poison Maker is how a play with many faults has so much to recommend it.
Although over-long, it is funny, absorbing and offers a fascinating look into the nature of the relationships between mothers and sons.
Until February 18
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