A Riff on Keef: The Human Myth

Benito Di Fonzo has written three impossibly titled, poetical plays about his heroes – Bob Dylan, Lenny Bruce and now that shaman of guitarists, Keith Richards. 

A Riff on Keef: The Human Myth is no incisive exploration into Richards’ times, character or startling longevity; but more a wandering William Burroughs style mediation on his moods, his chemical and musical quest.

Fonzo and his regular director Lucinda Gleeson are lucky to have Terry Serio’s raffishly perfect  Richards, be-decked in scarves, droopy-eyed, somehow both world weary and life affirming.   And Serio’s own guitar riffs are polished, while the remaining ensemble – when not all shouting at fever-pitch Fonzo’s overwritten script – also contribute to the production’s musical appeal.

Each of them also introduces entertaining snippets of characters in Richards’ life, but these rarely stay long enough for any real dramatic revelation. Abe Mitchell does a nicely cool Nick Cave and a great Jagger, all lips-and-arse; Lenore Munro struts as Marianne Faithful in furs; Branden Christine is both Chucky Berry and an impossible Queen Elizabeth II; while Dorje Swallow is the haunting presence of Richards’ musical and rebellious old granddad.

Hugh O’Connor’s rock star garb and his circular stage, lit with Sian James Holland’s vivid palette of colours, helps maintain the fantastical leaps across the world and through the mysteries of Richards’ mind. 

By end, he remains though that alluring hero of hedonism, but having found his chords, without much more to say.

Martin Portus

Photographer: Ross Waldron