Review: DON'T SLEEP THERE ARE SNAKES, Park Theatre, March 23 2016

Don't Sleep There Are Snakes (at the Park Theatre until 23 April) is the story of missionary/linguist Daniel Everett's life with the Piraha people of the Amazonian rainforest. Or rather, it isn't - at least not quite - as Everett's note in the programme makes clear. Those three paragraphs are full of the family drama and tropical atmosphere that is curiously lacking in Simple8's adaptation (by Sebastian Armesto and Dudley Hinton) of Everett's book of the same title.

Mark Arends plays Everett as a bright, if naive, missionary with a gift for languages, who, after a few jolts of cultural misunderstandings (about sex and death inevitably) learns the indigenous people's language and, as his faith ebbs away, becomes more and more acculturated to the ways of men and women who truly live out the sentiment of his favoured song, "Don't Worry. Be Happy".

Playing off Arends, an ensemble cast conjure not just the tribesmen and tribeswomen, but officious bureaucrats, opportunist traders, evangelical Christians and a few more of the obstacles thrown in Everett's path. They are at their best when telling the Piraha's curious stories and assuming the shape of spirits (more than just the shape as we find out) who emerge from the trees at night. It's easy to get that sort of thing wrong and fall into crass stereotyping, but Simple8's track record shows that the company are plenty wise enough to avoid such pitfalls.

That said, the play never quite decides what it is. Is it one man's tale of finding himself? Is it an insight into a culture now gone forever? Is it a shot in the linguistic theory wars that have raged for years now courtesy of Noam Chomsky and others? All of those issues are raised (the linguistics one at some length - twice) but none are really settled, the play's action halting abruptly with Everett unable to return to the Piraha, as we learn that modern medicine, electricity and television are changing their ways forever. A second half would have been fascinating.

Though there is much to admire in the boldness and invention of this production, its shortcomings lie, unfortunately, at the very heart of theatre - a lack of dramatic focus and an confused narrative drive. It is, however, unique in my experience; it never patronises it subjects nor its audience and has an ambition that is laudable.