Review: THE STANDARD SHORT LONG DROP, The Vanguard, Camden

In a mouldy cell of a Victorian prison in York, two men are awaiting their execution. When Ludley’s is temporarily suspended with the clause that he’ll be his cellmate’s hangman, he tries to understand if Alistair’s really guilty of the crimes he’s been charged with to ease his conscience.

Rachel Garnet’s new play is the chance to explore workers’ rights and mortality. It’s a tense black comedy, jam-packed with philosophical arguments and tied together by Natasha Rickman’s controlled vision. It’s, however, in spite of razor-sharp performances, a tad too lengthy to hit right.

Currently running at almost one hour and a half compared to the 50 swift Edinburgh minutes, it meanders a bit with scenes that could definitely be trimmed. Still, Garnet turns the concept of gallows humour up to eleven with easy yet delicious remarks on the men’s debacle. There’s plenty of good in The Standard Short Long Drop, starting with all the moments of intense focus that pepper the piece to Kevin Wathen’s remarkable portrayal of sacrifice. While the direction is contained on a small thrust stage, Wathen and Per Carminger’s personalities fill the drab space beyond the chalk marks on the floor.

Now, The Vanguard, a recently opened studio in the heart of Camden Market, isn’t the best of venues. The decently sized room filled with less than comfortable chairs with no hint of a slope makes for compromised sightlines from the get-go. Restraining the action with the audience on three sides, Rickman’s visual arrangements aren’t ideal. The actors stand and sit, often carrying out actions with their backs to part of the public, impairing the experience. It’s a shame, especially if we consider the quality of the acting.

Where Wathen has an arch approach to Ludley’s plight, Carminger is rattled and youthful. They balance one another well, each bringing extra layers to their characters, diverging their natures further and further than they are on paper. While Ludley’s jabs are on the nose, Alistair’s are finer. They toy with homophones and philosophy in delightful banter that pleasantly clashes with the circumstantial bleakness. Garnet’s script, while too polished to feel authentic to the situation, is full of accessible fun twists of language that lighten the mood and play into the absurdity of their limbo.

It might be problematic to say, but the dialogue makes Ludley and Alistair way too well-spoken for their backgrounds. As they talk about penance and regret, guilt and blame, faith and belief, they use impressive rhetoric and brilliant oratory skills with linguistic elegance - rather unlikely for a horse thief and a destitute factory worker. All in all, the project is a diamond in the rough and it might, one day, make for an exquisite addition to the period drama landscape. 

The Standard Short Long Drop runs at The Vanguard in Camden until 22 October.

Photo credit: Jason Warner of Firefly Studios

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