For the Grace of You Go I
Image: James Smithers in "For The Grace Of You Go I" at KXT. Photo: Clare Hawley
This new play by award-winning Welsh writer, Alan Harris, premiered last year in Wales and makes its debut at Kings Cross Theatre care of Secret House and New Ghosts Theatre Company. It’s a one-act, three character affair with minimal sets, so it’s well suited to the confines of the intimate room on the third floor of the Kings Cross Hotel.
At just under 90 minutes, For The Grace of You Go I packs a lot of ideas into a tight narrative arc, perhaps too many to give each its due – the three characters clearly have a lot of untold back story.
Jim (James Smithers) is a man with an undefined mental illness who is placed in a work program under a government scheme. The job he is given is on an assembly line at Mazio’s Pizza factory, where he is required to put six pieces of pepperoni on eight pizzas every ten seconds.
Jim is distracted and bored and continuously fails to achieve this simple KPI, much to the dismay of his manager, Irina (Jane Angharad). Irina stuck her neck out to get Jim this job, and feels the hot breath of her boss, Mr Mazio, on that out-stretched neck as she faces unmet quotas.
Worse still, Jim has taken to writing messages and drawing faces on pizzas with the pepperoni, leading to photos and comments on social media which is not appreciated by Mr Mazio.
Irina’s partner, Mark (Shan-Ree Tan), also has difficulties with mental illness. He and Jim meet one night at a screening of the 1990 Finnish film, I Hired A Contract Killer. Mark and Jim are unaware of their mutual connection to Irina.
The play’s plot mingles with the plot of I Hired A Contract Killer as each character’s motivations and inner thoughts are revealed.
The set design and production elements are sparse, with the main device being the use of three video cameras on tripods. The opposite walls of the stage area are effectively green screens. The cameras are used predominantly by Jim who acts as a kind of director of his own movie, a metaphor for his mental state.
The performances are all very good and there are quite a few laughs. Any fault with the play is in the writing which treats the subject matter quite superficially.
It’s an interesting concept and worth a look for the innovative approach.
