Cry/Laugh comments – heard of the town crier and the laugher? | | Theater

WThey are in an ancient world of comets, fiery dragons and punitive taxes. For the average person, it is difficult, but even in these advanced groups, two of them have a chance to gain power. One is the town crier, the mediator between the monarch and the serf. One is a scofflaw, hired by the court to tell it like it is. If anyone can stop the rebellion of the common people, it is these two.

Playwright Nay Dhanak is interested in this power imbalance, which is reflected, he suggests, in the current conflict between the masters of technology and everyone else. Cry/Laugh, their artistic debut, is a reflection of two such privileged individuals who have lost their jobs. Is no story a good story?

On the one hand, the brooding James Peake plays a disillusioned town crier who is the bearer of so much bad news. He may think that he is important, but the king sees that there is nothing to get rid of him. On the other hand, the light-footed Morven Blackadder plays a comic that has been reworked on an impossible mission to find a second sun to illuminate an eclipse. They do it happily, but they don’t have the king’s ear anymore.

In this lunchtime edition of A Play, Pie and Pint, directed by Ben Standish and The Guardian’s Brian Logan, the actors work hard – often hard – to bring out the joy of the play, as they go on a quest to find new roles.

Dhanak has a claim to power and accountability, but precisely that is suppressed by the author’s great interest in narrative structure and independent commentary on the mechanics of comedy. For all the actors’ efforts, Cry/Laugh isn’t funny enough to take on the current story and its absurd twists, and it’s not serious enough to convey its political agenda.