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A gripping performance by Owen Lindsay in a rare chance to see a Kiwi classic.Summary
Rating
Excellent
Written by multi-award winning New Zealander Tom Scott, his debut play The Daylight Atheist premiered back in 2002. It has taken more than 20 years for it to make its way over to the UK and now, thanks to Reckless Ecstasy, London audiences have a chance to see just why this has been so successful and so well regarded in its homeland.
Telling a story loosely based on his own father’s life Scott’s script pulls no punches. Danny Moffat (Owen Lindsay) shares his journey from birth in rural Ireland to serving in the second world war, before seeking a new life in New Zealand. However, Danny wasn’t counting on a shotgun wedding mere days before his departure to the other side of the world.
Now, many years later, Danny is a lonely old man looking back and telling the unfiltered story of his life. It does not flatter him. Lindsay grabs us and doesn’t let go, portraying Danny with such skill as to invite the audience to empathise with this horrible man. There is an honesty to Danny, even though we can’t take him as a reliable narrator. He doesn’t shy away from telling of the horrible things he has done or the terrible ways he has treated people. There is no shame or embarrassment, and he does nothing to play down his actions or suggest any mitigation. While there are occasional moments where you think this selfish man has a bit of self-awareness, this might be a leap, it might be a hope from the audience.
Lindsay seamlessly switches between accents, effortlessly embodying the Irish, Kiwi, and British dialects throughout the performance. He brings in other characters through his accents and his movements. His accent ability to do so comes as no surprise, considering his own Irish and New Zealand background. His own immigration story gives him an extra grounding in the experience of his character, far from home and perhaps not quite fitting in perfectly.
Richard Panzenböck directs with an unhurried pace, leaving us a lot of time with Danny. Although the story is being told from a poor, rundown bedroom, the staging and partnership between Panzenböck and Lindsay draws us into the other locations with some lovely touches; a milk crate standing in for a motorbike and a particularly well thought out piece of staging as a hat, mask and coat stand in for a man dying in a hospital bed.
Surely partly cathartic for Scott, The Daylight Atheist can’t explain how or why Danny ended up like this, disconnected from almost every aspect of humanity, a man alone through action and choice. His script is filled with humour, often black. Danny’s sardonic putdowns, very much of his generation, works well to keep the audience. It’s a testament to Scott’s writing and to Lindsay’s performance that they are able to so thoroughly hold our interest in a complex character with few redeeming features and give us a connection to this disconnected man.
Written by Tom Scott
Directed by Richard Panzenböck
The Daylight Atheist plays at Old Red Lion until 4th May. Further information and tickets can be found here.
