‘Playground’ is set in Victoria Park in East London where a
lot of children have been barbarically massacred by being beheaded with a
fretsaw; as such a rigorous police investigation is forthcoming by inspectors,
Detective Inspector Mitchell (Dan MacLane) and DC Birch (Christopher James
Barley) who are both puzzled to the extent of the murders. Simultaneously, in a
different segment of the park, night cleaner, Danny who at the time is
engrossed by reading one of the ‘Famous Five’ books, yet when Carolyn rushes to
the lake with an aim on her own intentions. When Danny commences a conversation
with Carolyn, they soon identify a shared interest and that is with literary
work. Over the course of the performance, Danny, Carolyn, painter/decorator
Stuart (Simon Every) and teenager Tamsin (Laura Garnier) who are patients of
psychiatrist of Dr Ross come together for a book club where the only books they
talk about is Enid Blyton’s, ‘Famous Five’. However, there is a link between
the book club and to the murders of the children as page 100 of Enid Blyton’s
books have been placed on the top of the dead bodies. The investigation is
becoming strenuous and the general public are becoming panicky who are finding techniques
to protect themselves and other children. This is evident when the owner of
Izzy’s Café in Victoria Park, Bella (Sarah Quist) decides that it is necessary that
she carries a large serrated knife inside her handbag. It is thought that Danny
is the killer as she is concerned by his obsession with Enid Blyton’s and she
reports him to the police as he is the most likely candidate. He admits to
being the killer and is taken for questioning and throughout the questioning it
is not Danny who murdered all of these children, but in actual fact it was Dr
Ross who was the culprit. At the finale when Dr Ross is exposed as the killer,
Stuart thinks that Bella is his sister who he hasn’t seen for a very long time
but she says that she is not, but we know that she is his sister. Hamilton’s
narrative is complicated as the message of the piece is not clear or obvious to
the audience member as we think it is fundamentally about a serial killer murdering
children with Enid Blyton’s methods of murder mystery to captivate this.
One found the performances by the company of, ‘Playground’
to be satisfactory as they did convey the childlike and mentally ill characteristics
of the roles. Richard Fish is acceptable as odd night cleaner, Danny;
specifically at the point where his fascination of Enid Blyton’s makes it clear
that not all doctors can be trusted as they can manipulate vulnerable people
into thinking they have done things which they have not. Josie Ayers is
adequate as Carolyn; especially when you see how a friendship between her and
Danny is really intriguing as both are damaged so they have that common bond
and become motherly towards Danny as he is a very lonely due to how strange he
is with no family.
Ken McClymont’s direction is bizarre and tomfoolery here as
he has not presented much clarity into how the message could have been entwined
into the show to make it visible and the detailing of how the characters are
linked together was really disappointing and indistinguishable which is not
helped by Hamilton’s shoddy plotline. Ken McClymont’s designs are on the other
hand quite attractive as making Victoria Park in such a small space has been
realised meticulously as you were immediately transported to the park in a good
way, this meant that the design is one of the only positive aspects of the
show. Overall, the experience of, ‘Playground was somewhat tragic and appalling
one that leaves you really muddled when you left the auditorium so I really
didn’t like the performance.
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