Review: What Would Jarvis Do?, Omnibus Theatre

Didi (Annabel Smith) and GG (Isabel Butt) love Pulp. DiDi has spent a significant amount of money on a pair of Jarvis Cocker’s yellow trousers. But she now doubts the veracity of their provenance, and is going about trying to get her money back. The route to do so sees the duo repeatedly go to visit their “therapist”, Ms Lacy (Maggie Daniels), who also sold them the trousers.

It’s obvious that there’s something more going on. Didi believes that getting the right yellow trousers will make everything better, that she will be fulfilled by completing the chase, but the spectre of some big horrible prior event haunts the piece. Didi and GG reference vague symptoms that have been going on for the last three months, symptoms they assumed would have stopped by now. Didi has been following her therapist’s advice – to take a lot of paracetamol – but there haven’t been any improvements. When it comes to what has actually happened, though, there’s a frustrating lack of exploration.

Whenever Ms Lacy begins to probe at these “disturbances”, Didi turns back to the trousers and insists that they are the only reason she’s there. Of course, finding the trousers will never result in fulfilment – there’s something unspoken that must be faced. According to the play’s blurb this something is grief, but that’s never particularly clear in the story itself.

The narrative dissolves into surreal farce, numerous plot elements thrown in without any clear meaning or purpose. There are a lot of repetitions in the script, variations on lines that feel somewhat Beckettian. The girls always bring Ms Lacy a gift, for example, which she always comments is out of season. Ms Lacy may, in fact, be a madwoman who has kidnapped her wheelchair-bound husband ‘Mister’ (Henry Miller) and is keeping him trapped in her house. Their son Christoper (Gigi Zahir), who may be some kind of robot, is stuck in some kind of Whatever Happened To Baby Jane arrested development. Didi and GG return time and time again to Ms Lacy’s door, each time seemingly without remembering the last time they were there. It becomes hard to know what is intended as metaphor and what is actually part of a linear narrative.

While the story is muddled, the acting is impressive. Smith gives a compelling picture of multilayered distress, while Butt’s innocent daydreamy-ness is reminiscent of Derry Girls’ Orla. The script has moments of real emotion or comedy, although these are hard to hold onto as the rollercoaster plot twists and turns.

There are elements of What Would Jarvis Do? that have strong potential, but the whole production becomes so confused that it’s difficult to connect to it. Pared back and rebuilt, it could have far more emotional depth. If nothing else, the soundtrack by FREW is excellent.

Presented by Laura Grillo Productions
Writer: Laura Grillo
Director: Maiya Pascouche
Creative producer: Ella Dale
Set and costume designer: Georgie Lynch-Bailey
Sound designer: FREW
Lighting designer: Laurel Marks
Stage manager: Reuben Bojang
Development Director: Maddy Corner

What Would Jarvis Do? plays at the Omnibus Theatre until Friday 16 October.