Inescapable

written and interpreted by Martin Dockery / Ribbit RePublic

Two friends have stepped away from a yearly Holiday party for just a moment – or have they? After discovering a small box, with only a switch and a warning label, the plot doesn’t just thicken; it warps, and doubles back on itself so that the audience cannot be certain that the progression of time on stage is linear.

This play reveals its central theme early on. It’s about memory and of our tenuous grasp of reality. And though this has been introduced to us early on, Dockery still hooks his audience and takes them on a journey that they did not see coming. Dockery is adept at using the illusory reality of the stage to toy with his audience, and Inescapable does just that. In Inescapable, repetition is used as a tool that unveils an alternate reality between these two characters, one that they can’t fully grasp.

There are a few elements in the plot itself that work against the stage-world that Dockery has imagined, which ultimately tarnish the illusion. What’s more, the staging here works against the actors. However, there are also so many things right about this show. Jon Paterson and Martin Dockery have an electric rapport on stage. The dialogue is dizzying, the characters are funny, and the plot is the thing of a hallucinogenic vision.