New Theatre: Foxfinder

From what The Tab could gather, it seemed that this internet sensation was suddenly really serious business affecting farms in England.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jofNR_WkoCE[/youtube]

William Bloor, the Foxfinder, arrives at the Coveys farm to investigate a contamination of foxes. These foxes aren’t just killing the chickens – they’re getting into peoples minds, wreaking havoc across the English countryside and seriously affecting the production of crops.

After some pondering (i.e Googling), it turns out this play is all about how humans irrationally seek scapegoats to explain the errors of mankind.

Well, it says a lot that I had to go and google it.

William (James Gooderson) is a 19 year old investigator who truly believes that foxes are the biggest enemy of mankind. He is a very strange character, clearly indoctrinated by an ambiguous ‘institution’ that Gooderson did not quite grasp.

James Gooderson as William, the Foxfinder

In a moment of rare comedy, he was best when he was interrogating Judith Covey (Jessica McNamee) about her sex life in an awkwardly crude manner that had the audience cringing along with her.

“Does your husband make you orgasm?”

Jessica McNamee took a while to settle into her role as the worried farmer’s wife. It was Sian Beaven, playing the Coveys neighbour Sarah, who carried the story along and added the emotion that this play was so lacking beforehand (despite having a tragic backstory). It was a shame that her role was so small.

Sian Beaven as Sarah

The choice to stage this play in the round only made it more awkward as Chris Trueman’s, (Sam) performance was hindered by the unfortunate location of his main exit.

It was incredibly long, running at 1 hour and 45 minutes without an interval, and it needed to be more than a bizzare domestic drama to hold my interest for that long.

This play had the potential to be really good but it just fell a little flat: not New Theatre’s best.