Banging Denmark – REVIEW
Image: Sarah Greenwood and Matt Abotomey in BANGING DENMARK Photo: © Cambell Parsons
Van Badham’s effusively celebrated play of 2019, Banging Denmark, is having a limited return season at New Theatre as part of Sydney Fringe. Written during a heightened period of aggressive internet trolling by extreme misogynists, the play is filled with biting quips and politically fuelled invective, with no pretension to subtlety.
Ishtar Madigan (Sarah Greenwood) is an academic and high-profile feminist who has been forced to live in her university office after being sued for defamation; she had made unsubstantiated claims about an unsavoury internet influencer who took umbrage and then legal action.
Broke, homeless and in hiding, Ish is brought provisions by her friend, Denyse (Kandice Joy). Their mutual friend, Toby (Gerry Mullaly) is hopelessly in love with Denyse who, alas, has only platonic feelings for him.
Jake Newhouse (Matt Abotomey) is a popular podcaster in the learned field of pick-up artistry and other machismo-oriented arts. One day, when Jake is in a library, he espies Anne (Emelia Corlett) a stunning and aloof Danish woman who is inexplicably resistant to his seduction technique. Ego shattered, Jake seeks out Ish and offers her a substantial amount of money to help persuade Anne to go out with him.
There are several unexpected entanglements and mystifying revelations before the
plot reaches what is ultimately a rather benign, unsatisfying resolution. Coming, as it did, on the blood-soaked heels of Gamergate and from the unsheathed pen of social commentator, Badham, the play is surprisingly moderate, almost empathetic, in its treatment of Jake. That would be forgivable if he was merely a pathetic, big-mouthed poser, but he in fact, as we discover, genuinely malevolent and destructive.
Ish, on the other hand, is over-wrought, chaotic, and some of her judgements feel a little out of kilter with feminist sensibility.
The play is packed with Wilde-esque one-liners and witty observations, but unlike with Wilde, the characters and plot are flimsy. It’s a clever farce with some good laughs, but it runs at one energy level throughout and is too long by at least 20 minutes.
The simple set design is clever, with movable pieces helping to effect location changes. The performances are on the histrionic side.
Banging Denmark is as raunchy and obvious as its title.
