Review: Mug's Arrow
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Mug's Arrows – Nottingham Playhouse – 19.03.15
by Eddie Elks
Into the back room of a sedate and hum drum local, walk Pat and Ed, brash and to the point they're there to play some darts, sinks some pints and try to figure out the loss of their long term mate Simon. After a few more insights the beautiful and wilful Sarah appears looking for company. A stranger around these parts she cuts into Pat and Ed's private conversation leaving the lads in an awkward state of reserve, unwilling to bring Sarah into their clique. Is Sarah the incorrigible new comer Pat is making her out to be or just an engaging city girl wanting to shake things up a bit? Add a bottle of Whiskey into mix and things are sure to get spicy.
This is an ultimately engaging, dark performance delivered with emotion, tension and continual comedic resolve. It's twists and turns articulate a Midlands business, far removed from the city, tangible, and on the surface all too familiar to the Nottingham audience. But there's more to this story; we're entered into a weird world of personal disclosure, betrayal and the surreal.
Eddie Elks' performances exudes charisma, born just a few miles away from the border of Derbyshire's Peak District National Park his portrayal of the sheltered darts lover Ed is delivered with inevitable authenticity presenting a naïve local with urges for new experience, only stifled by an intriguingly controversial and hilarious secret obsession. The dynamic created between Ed and the straight talking Pat (Rhys King), describes perfectly the interplay of a resolutely male relationship. You can feel the Pat's stress build throughout the performance as he re-enforces everything he thinks he knows, red faced from repressed tension . This creates the perfect opposition for Polly Hughes' Sarah to cast an encapsulating web of excitement and distrust, adding vamp like potency to the sophisticated and compelling narrative, resolving in triumphant release in its surreal conclusion.
It was a delight to meet the cast after the performance. Eddie spoke of his inspiration for Mug's Arrows; his time growing up in Derbyshire, his love of Darts, a friends death and some eerily ephemeral scenes of the surrounding countryside near to which he lived.
Mug's Arrow's in my book is a must see, it's unique, thought provoking, edgy and intelligent; reminding us of the inevitability of change? Or that there's more to a game of darts than meets the eye?
Mug's Arrows is running 30th and 31st March - Buxton Opera House, Saturday 4th April Derby Theatre
Mikey Cottle
by Eddie Elks
Into the back room of a sedate and hum drum local, walk Pat and Ed, brash and to the point they're there to play some darts, sinks some pints and try to figure out the loss of their long term mate Simon. After a few more insights the beautiful and wilful Sarah appears looking for company. A stranger around these parts she cuts into Pat and Ed's private conversation leaving the lads in an awkward state of reserve, unwilling to bring Sarah into their clique. Is Sarah the incorrigible new comer Pat is making her out to be or just an engaging city girl wanting to shake things up a bit? Add a bottle of Whiskey into mix and things are sure to get spicy.
This is an ultimately engaging, dark performance delivered with emotion, tension and continual comedic resolve. It's twists and turns articulate a Midlands business, far removed from the city, tangible, and on the surface all too familiar to the Nottingham audience. But there's more to this story; we're entered into a weird world of personal disclosure, betrayal and the surreal.
Eddie Elks' performances exudes charisma, born just a few miles away from the border of Derbyshire's Peak District National Park his portrayal of the sheltered darts lover Ed is delivered with inevitable authenticity presenting a naïve local with urges for new experience, only stifled by an intriguingly controversial and hilarious secret obsession. The dynamic created between Ed and the straight talking Pat (Rhys King), describes perfectly the interplay of a resolutely male relationship. You can feel the Pat's stress build throughout the performance as he re-enforces everything he thinks he knows, red faced from repressed tension . This creates the perfect opposition for Polly Hughes' Sarah to cast an encapsulating web of excitement and distrust, adding vamp like potency to the sophisticated and compelling narrative, resolving in triumphant release in its surreal conclusion.
It was a delight to meet the cast after the performance. Eddie spoke of his inspiration for Mug's Arrows; his time growing up in Derbyshire, his love of Darts, a friends death and some eerily ephemeral scenes of the surrounding countryside near to which he lived.
Mug's Arrow's in my book is a must see, it's unique, thought provoking, edgy and intelligent; reminding us of the inevitability of change? Or that there's more to a game of darts than meets the eye?
Mug's Arrows is running 30th and 31st March - Buxton Opera House, Saturday 4th April Derby Theatre
Mikey Cottle
