Precarious Theatre is taking its shot at proselytizing without any precarity to it. In both the writing and staging of its new play, Conversion, there are shockingly few risks taken and very little grit for audiences to sink their teeth into.
As promised in its advertising, the play, written by Precarious Theatre founders Liam Grogan and Marc Biasioli covers an excerpt from the life and times of St. Augustine of Canterbury (David Allen). Beginning with his dispensation from sunny Rome and following his journey to the strange and savage land of Britain, this play is not shy of including multitudes of characters in its opening scenes.
With more the aura of a school pageant than a fringe theatre production its cast galumphs and galivants across the stage in mock pagan revelry before unmasking themselves as an assemblage of God fearing but woefully ignorant and timid Christian peasants in desperate need of a hero like Augustine to sermonize to the audience. The sincerity of this benediction unfortunately severely undercuts the cast’s many attempts at humour and both scripted jokes and humorous affects performed by its members fall on deaf ears.
The play’s scope narrows significantly as it goes on resulting in more of a constriction of narrative than the ideal unfolding of action, as Augustine ventures farther into England’s seat of power and finds himself ensnared by its serpentine queen (Tilly Woof). Diehard fans of the story of his life and famous battle with chastity as well as anyone familiar with the quote “Lord, give me chastity and continence, but not yet!” will be sorely disappointed by the lack of action in this or any other scene. The staging of her attempted seduction of the saint is not sexy, funny, or really anything other than vaguely symbolic and incongruously PG. It is presented with the chastity one might expect of a didactic church play intended for a mostly prepubescent audience and serves a tepid narrative unlikely to kindle any kind of fervor in its viewers, religious or otherwise.
Without much of a spark in either its heroes or its villains, this Conversion is unlikely to take the nation.
Reviewer: Kira Daniels
Reviewed: 15th July 2024
North West End UK Rating: