Faith, Hope & Charity at The Dorfman

In Christian tradition, faith, hope & charity are the three theological virtues. In Alexander Zeldin’s new play currently playing at The Dorfman, Faith and Charity are two girls who are talked about but never seen and Hope is in rather short supply.

Natasha Jenkins has cleverly transformed the staging area of the Dorfman Theatre into a run-down community centre.  With no raised staging and the realism of the set, it really does feel as if we’re all visitors to a bona fide soup kitchen.  There’s even a bucket for collecting water from the leaking ceiling, which, on the night I went, was positioned near my left leg and I had to move my bag to prevent it from getting wet!  And so we watch as the multi-cultural waifs and strays come and go, grateful there’s some safe place where they can get a hot meal.

Chief cook, bottle washer and ready listener is Hazel, beautifully portrayed by the excellent Cecilia Noble.  Her unwitting sidekick is Mason (Nick Holder), who turns up to replace the previous volunteer who ran the choir and ends up doing pretty much anything.   Ostensibly an up-beat character, who brings humour to proceedings, Holder also expertly elicits our sympathies on hearing his life, too, hasn’t been easy.

But then this play shines a light on those members of society who don’t find anything easy.  They’re the ones suffering the grim realities of the new age austerity, as did the characters in Zeldin’s previous two plays in his trilogy, namely Beyond Caring (about a group of cleaners working on zero-hours contracts) and Love (a 90 minute piece about homeless people).  Luckily his message about the failings of a seemingly uncaring government doesn’t preach or bully and hits home all the more because of it. 

The various cast members who portray the visitors to the centre don’t act but inhabit their roles.  So much so that when it came to the “curtain call” I found myself wondering where they would go after they left the building!  Even Susan Lynch, who plays Beth, a troubled mother who oscillates between maternal love and a barely contained rage, is totally unrecognisable.  Not for any other reason than that she somehow manages to disappear inside her character. 

There isn’t an actor involved who doesn’t deserve a mention.  Beth’s son Marc is played by an understated but devastating newcomer Bobby Stallwood, whose tiny biography is sure to grow and grow.  He tries to handle his mother as they go to and from the court trying to keep Faith, his sibling, out of care.  He is also given one of the most gut-wrenching lines in the whole play as he explains a strategy to ward off the pain of being too poor to buy food; “when we’re hungry, we go to sleep”.  The oldest visitor is Bernard, played by the eminently watchable Alan Williams who is a mixture of bewilderment, anger, gratitude and apology.  The opponent to Bernard’s generational outlook is Anthony (Corey Peterson) and their ongoing verbal battle is so lifelike one is never sure if they will actually come to blows.

Alexander Zeldin directs his own play and it wouldn’t be a bad idea if it were required viewing for those members of our society who have a hand in deciding how public money is spent.