Fringe review: Shellshocked
This excellent new English play from the Edinburgh Fringe, written and directed by Philip Stokes and featuring his son Jack Stokes, is an intriguing and disconcerting meeting of damaged minds. ★★★★★
The scene is an artist’s studio. There is a large blank easel in the centre of the stage with paint-spattered tarps suspended behind it. There is a desk with drawers and, beside a well-used drinks cabinet, stands a disheveled man — bearded, past his prime, bulging out of his Fair Isle jumper and leaning heavily on a stick.
The painter’s name is Lupine and his wolfish nature is soon to be revealed when a young man named Wesley Hepton visits for a job interview as artist’s assistant.
World War 1 has just ended and Wesley has returned a hero but is also suffering from the dread of war. Shell-shocked, he is withdrawn and depressed, dissociated from the Northern English town where he grew up.
Shellshocked canvasses questions about the purpose of art, the indifference of the artist, the horror and futility of war, and the psychopathy of mandated murder. Wesley has been scarred and near ruined by his experience. Nevertheless, Lupine, the painter of Labrador dogs, envies Wesley’s portfolio of battlefield images and despises his own suburban mediocrity.
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The dialogue is mercurial and often cruel. It is also satiric and grimly funny — a mix of Pinter, Joe Orton, and even a dash of Alan Bennett. And the performances are terrific.
Lee Bainbridge’s Lupine is wheedling, perversely dominating, and forensically interrogating – until Jack Stokes’s memorable Wesley, in his baggy, oversized suit, desperate for employment, and exhausted by military bastardry, begins to turn the tables.
Shellshocked is itself a series of theatrical assaults, after-images, and troubling contradictions — which only accelerate as matters get further out of hand. Philip Stokes (who, with his son Jack, also presented the brilliant 2023 Fringe production Jesus, Jane, Mother and Me ) has directed his own text — best capturing both its intelligence and originality.
Selected from the Edinburgh Fringe for inclusion in Holden Street Theatre’s consistently excellent international program, this is undoubtedly a highlight and the Fringe has hardly begun.
Shellshocked is playing at The Arch, Holden Street Theatres until March 23.