'Hand to God' Vaudeville Theatre ***

There are some theatre shows that have had to close unfortunately because of mediocre ticket sales and this is morbid when the production is actually very funny and where rude humour comes from puppetry and a decent plot. The West End production of Robert Askins’ play, ‘Hand to God’ which received massive success Off-Broadway and on-Broadway was a pleasant and very amusing show about how Christianity can be a little possessive via a puppet, in addition to this, the interpretations were adequately depicted.

‘Hand to God’ is set in Cypress, Texas where we are familiarised to a heavily devout Christianity community where Margery who has just became a widow recently has been asked by the local pastor, Pastor Greg (Neil Pearson) to run a puppet club which is being used to teach children and teenagers on how to follow the Bible. The three teenagers who attend the club are Margery’s son, Jason, Jessica the girl who lives next door and Timmy (Kevin Mains), the troublemaker whose mother is going to AA. Over the course of the performance, Jason’s puppet, Tyronne begins to cause problems; especially with sleeping and his constant outbursts are making it hard for Jason to form relationships such as with Jessica who Jason has got a massive crush on. Jason and Margery’s mother-son relationship is somewhat fraught due to the fact that it is because of the death of Jason’s father and when he doesn’t want to go to the puppetry class, she doesn’t want to listen to him and when he pulls the head off of his puppet, his mother angrily kicks him out of the car despite the fact that he is exceedingly apologetic. Margery appears to have two people vying for her affections, Timothy and Pastor Greg and as she is dealing with a lot of stress at home rejects both of their advances and as a result of none of their student’s not dropping in, she smashes up the classroom and when Timothy shows up they have strange and berserk sexual intercourse.  Tyronne who has been repaired is not impressed with Jason is determined to hurt him and states that he should inform everyone at the church and from this Tyronne torments Timothy and makes some crude remarks to Jason so that things become awkward for Jessica and Jason. When Timothy brings up that he had sex with Jason’s mother and as such he strikes Timothy and bites his ear off. Throughout the performance, Jason has been locked into the basement and Tyronne with the assistance of Jason, the room has been completely ransacked and made into some sort of hell. When Pastor Greg finds Margery and Timothy having sex, he is adamant that he will be going to the police. Jason realises that he has been supressing so much anger so he scream at his mother as he thinks she is responsible for his father’s death and things come to a head when Tyronne tries to kill him for being increasingly unthankful. However, Jason tries to break away from Tyronne’s clutches, he ends up hammering his own hand and with this Tyronne’s practically deceased and at the finale, Tyronne makes one final appearance mocks the audience with a devilish expression and then he bids a long awaited goodbye. Askins’s narrative is really rib-tickling as combining puppetry and the comedic dialogue with extremely strong language reminds me of a rude version of ‘Punch and Judy’ with a bit of ‘South Park’ thrown in and making a mockery of Christianity may be controversial but it may be slightly factual. 

One found the performances by the company of, ‘Hand to God’ to be famously groovy as there is such a fluidity through quite demanding fight sequences and the American diction were credible and this works with the side-splitting moments.  Harry Melling is awesome as troubled teen and wicked puppet, Jason/Tyronne;  in particular how we see that how the puppet Tronne has made it impossible for Jason to be fully himself and it has caused Jason to being isolated when it comes to his feelings towards Jessica and his rage at his mother shows how vulnerable he his. Janie Dee is nifty as Jason’s mother, Margery; mainly due to the fact that how her grieving process is making her do some pretty stupid things like having sex with a teenage boy and violently ripping up the church’s Bible as she thinks that her loyal God should have done much more to help her situation and how she is treating her son is rather despicable and not that nice.  Jemima Rooper is okay as Jason’s hope to be girlfriend, Jessica;  largely how their little private scene in the playground where they are on the swings shows how teenagers come to find their feelings for either girls or boys and this actually captures the realism in the show where the rest of it a little bit bonkers. 

Moritz Von Stuplepnagel’s direction is dandy here as he has been able to give us an insight into how someone’s death can really affect people’s relationships where they are blaming each other for the deceased passing, furthermore, the work with the puppetry to establish the fact that Tyronne is the demented being suggests that people are questioning their beliefs in the Christian faith. Beowulf Borit’s set design and Sydney Maresca’s costume designs are amazing as we have been transported to the Texan locality where the transition of such places has been handled with such panache and the costumes reflect the times of the characters. Plus, the scenic art and scenic construction are out of this world and work to communicate the humour to the whole proceedings. Overall, the experience of, ‘Hand to God’ was a delightful play and it is a shame that it has to close weeks before it’s expected closing date but then again that is theatre at times.