The attraction of playing with fire is brilliantly displayed in a new work by Victor Rodger that lights the fuse on a volatile mixture of outrageous comedy and raw emotion.
The resulting explosion has the force of a volcanic eruption that blows away the veneer of social convention to release layers of pent-up emotion and deeply embedded pain.
Revealing family secrets in the charged atmosphere of a funeral is a familiar dramatic device but At the Wake manages to confound expectations with complex characters engaged in a series of neatly structured reversals.
Inter-racial and inter-generational conflict generates plenty of laughter with characters who are oblivious to the strictures of political correctness winding each other up in hilarious exchanges on gender and cultural identity. But beneath the comedy is a thoughtful concern with the painful reality of family relationships and the play offers some stimulating insights on love, loss, duty, forgiveness and our profound yearning for social connection.
