Theatre Review - King Troll (The Fawn)
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| Dominic Holmes [Helen Murray] |
KING Troll (The Fawn) starts with a bang that leaves members of the audience gasping.
Set on an unnamed island, Sonali Bhattacharyya’s dystopian drama about the migrant experience interweaves horror and social realism to terrific effect. Two South Asian sisters, Nikita (Zainab Hasan) and Riya (Safiyya Ingar), are struggling to make ends meet after the death of their mother.
Nikita works with young migrants, and tries to help Tahir (Diyar Bozkurt) with his home office application, but doesn’t earn enough to pay the rent. Riya has to prove she is eligible for Indefinite Leave to Remain in an increasingly hostile environment.
They visit their mother’s former work colleague, Shashi (Ayesha Dharker), hoping she can help them with supporting documentation. Instead, she offers Riya the opportunity to create a homunculus fawn, a humanlike being. When Riya manages to raise a fawn (brilliantly played by Dominic Holmes) who dotes on her, things take an unexpected turn. Gradually, the sisters find themselves on opposing sides.
Bhattacharyya evokes the horrors of the migrant experience today – in particular the cruel and degrading treatment of displaced people by an overzealous border control.
Milli Bhatia’s visceral and fleet-footed production unsettles from the start and sustains tension throughout the play’s 90-minute duration.
Another terrific production from this small theatre powerhouse. Recommended.
Originally published by Camden New Journal
Until November 2