Defoe’s Plague

Daniel Defoe, who we know as the author of Robinson Crusoe and a major literary figure, in 1722 is a jobbing author trying to sell his lately published book, “A Journal of the Plague Year”. During his sales efforts, a Friend (Shannon Woollard) appears and accosts him. Defoe (Phil Roberts) is cross examined about his lose association with the truth including a change of name and the appropriation of his uncle’s story of being in London during the Black Death for his book.

Defoe emerges as a salesman with literary aspirations who is prepared to bend the truth to his economic survival and artistic purposes and is strongly protective of his work and its effect on the world. The Friend straddles the distance between 1722 and now, and drops in and out of other characters with strong audience engagement using sly humour, current references and an audience participation song. The moving vignette of Defoe's father and uncle deciding whether to leave London to escape the plague raises questions about truth in desperate situations.

Opening night had a few glitches with Defoe's wig distractingly trying to escape, and the lighting being patchy so actors repeatedly flashed in and out of light with a step.

But the integrity of the play held, being in turn serious and cheeky, literary with reality just a step away, all contributing to a tough examination of whether it is “morally acceptable to be economical with the truth”.

Ruth Richter

Photographer: Darren Gill