Review: Channel Surfing at the End of Days, Hen and Chickens Theatre

It’s a brave thing to put on an anthology theatre show. But that is exactly what Callum Pardoe attempts with Channel Surfing at the End of Days. The theme – well the title should be a big hint: it’s a collection of incomplete scenes, very much like sitting down to watch the television with that annoying friend who flicks incessantly from one channel to the next so you only catch snippets of stories, leaving you wondering quite what may have gone before or what might happen after. Of course, you will never find out as the channel is switched yet again. 

This is a great idea, and when it works well it demonstrates what the show could be. The problem though is that as we watch scene after scene after scene we slowly disconnect from the whole, lost in a whirlwind of different ideas and concepts. Outside of the channel surfing, there is nothing else to bind it all together, no feeling that these are the suggested end of days scenarios the title offers. Instead, it feels more like a scratch night where some pieces hit and some very much miss. 

The show is at its best early on, with opening sketches that speed along nicely. The opener is an absolute gem, as we drop in on a couple (Matt Williams and Eleanor Cobb) just as they finish watching a film. He flip-flops around in his opinion, eager to agree with her view however he can. It’s a scene that should set the tone for everything that follows. When the action cuts suddenly, just as she mentions an unwanted phone call, we are left confused and slightly disorientated. A promising start indeed, but equally as delightful is the shortest segment of the show that sees Joe Stanton’s cafe customer dismissive of Natasha Mula’s waitress. As with the best scenes, it has no beginning or end, just a rather truncated middle and absolutely no apparent purpose: unsurprisingly, as it lasts no more than twenty seconds. 

But things begin to go wrong around the mid-point. A scene with Stanton and a home smart device begins interestingly but then seriously overstays its welcome. Where earlier scenes cut off before you can reach conclusions about the characters, this one just goes on and on, and its attempts to create a sense of dread fail through repetition of the same thoughts. From here on, the whole show struggles to pull us back in, that lack of a binding element between scenes finally causing a disconnect that is never recovered. 

The four strong cast should be praised for their efforts in moving so smoothly from one scene to the next. It must be tough playing such a vast number of roles in scenes that don’t allow time to build upon the character before its being discarded to move on to the next. Likewise, Pardoe’s directing keeps scene changes pacey, actors quickly moving stools or a table as they cross the stage, allowing each scene to bleed well into the next. 

But by the end I’m just a bit jaded with it all, the promise of the first half lost and never recovered. That lack of connection between the parts finally makes it too much of an effort to stay fully tuned in. It just gives an audience nothing to cling on to or convince us to stay with it for its entire length. There are without doubt moments of brilliance and it’s those that should be looked at, to consider why they work before building the rest of the show around them. It’s admirable to try something this different, and maybe with further work the piece could be more of a draw.

Written and directed by Callum Pardon
Technical design by Benedict Case
Produced by Friends of David

Channel Surfing at the End of Days plays at The Hen and Chickens Theatre until Saturday 25 April.