Antilton

A frustrated theatre maker, Artist (Kyle McCallion) is blocked and unhappy – his talent is assumed - but then is caught by the idea that he can write and produce and direct a sort of version of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s smash hit rap musical Hamilton.  But he will change all the characters to ants and their names to ant names – thus Hamilton becomes Antilton and so on.  Why he thinks this is a good idea, or that it’s funny, or has any point at all, is never quite clear. 

What is clear, is his determination to cast and mount his play, if only in his share house backyard.  His housemate Sceptic (Riley Street) thinks the idea is ridiculous and wants no part of it.  Housemate Enabler (Jessica David) also thinks it’s a bad idea and that it’ll never happen, but she is simply incapable of saying ‘no’ to her friend...   Blundering, clumsy Nervous Noel (Jacob Kuek), a would-be actor, hears of the project and joins the cast.  A fractious neighbour, Talent (Madeleine Gosden), a bonafide if struggling but conceited artiste is drawn in...  Meanwhile Roommate (Jeremy Harland), who knows nothing of theatre, keeps his disinterested distance.

Proceedings are not helped here by Oscar O’Brien’s direction.  Some of the cast seem to think that ‘comedy’ means over-acting and shouting.  But Riley Street plays the underwritten Sceptic with a sort of downbeat naturalism while Kyle McCallion somehow manages, given the deluded character he has to play, to be quietly credible.  Jeremy Harland’s cheerful bogan Roommate is easily the best of the ensemble – even making us accept a completely out-of-the-blue change of heart.  Lighting changes seem arbitrary, and scene transitions are indicated by the cast rearranging furniture on stage - which is quite unnecessary.

I hope it is not too much of a spoiler to say that, after noisy trials and tribulations, failed auditions, arguments, betrayals and desertions, the play does go on... And is, apparently, a success... But we necessarily skip over the difficulty of presenting any of the play within the play so we don’t get to see a single scene. 

It might be argued that the underlying concept here is already a violation of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s moral rights, but there would certainly be a violation of copyright, were any of the text of Hamilton used straight or as parody, with or without ants.  To avoid that issue, there are no scenes from Hamilton, But, of course, seeing the characters as ants is just what we expected and looked forward to seeing, so really, what is the point?  And what would we see anyway?  Lin-Manuel Miranda’s characters as ants with ant names?

Just as you cannot make good art out of good intentions, so you cannot tell a good story with a weak or, as here, ridiculous premise.  O’Brien seems to have two intentions.  First is that adapting Hamilton as Antilton is for one second a viable idea.  Second is the much more viable but sadly unrealised intention to dramatise the frustrated artist’s desire or need to validate themselves as a creator – to do anything so as to do something.  That second intention could have so much more strength if the first intention had a shred of credibility.  Buried in the dialogue, almost en passant, is a confession from O’Brien, via his Artist, that he knows how silly the idea is – but the show – any show must go on.

Michael Brindley