Looking for Giants, King’s Head Theatre, stage review: ‘Static portrait of a masochistic personality’
‘Strong performance’: Abby McCann. Photograph: Woodforge Studios
Looking for Giants at the King’s Head Theatre is a one-woman show probing the familiar but little-explored phenomenon of obsession with those who have rejected or demeaned us.
The play, written by Cesca Echlin, is a monologue about three men who have in different ways treated the narrator badly, either in reality or in her own imagination (the distinction is left ambiguous).
We may all have been there at some point in our lives, but in the tales we hear, garden-variety obsession tips over into the pathological, as the fantasies of abuse are laced with unsettling evidence of mental illness.
A strong performance by Abby McCann carries the drama, but it is let down by a script lacking in narrative development.
There is no searching back in time as to the causes of the protagonist’s neuroses; nor is there movement forward toward crisis or resolution.
Instead, we get a static portrait of a masochistic personality that leaves those genuinely interested in the topic somewhat underwhelmed.
The dungeon-like theatre is an appropriate venue for a play which has at its heart a claustrophobic obsession with the noxious male gaze. Unfortunately, this effect was somewhat overdone.
Despite having opened over a year ago, the theatre is clearly experiencing teething troubles, having visitors show their tickets over and over and make multiple trips from the overcrowded bar down to the fourth-floor basement where the performance space is.
Greater comfort and convenience might have enabled more in-depth reflection on the production’s themes.
Looking for Giants runs until 26 January at King’s Head Theatre, 116 Upper Street, N1 1QN.