Hangover

Collabor-8 Productions premiere at the Fringe with their harrowing and thought-provoking play Hangover. The play opens on a typical morning for the character Danny (David Elliot) – the aftermath of a night out. But an unusual addition to Danny's environment is found in the new friend who joins him at his lowest ebb, a personification of his hangover.

The device initially proves to be an effective opening. The larger-than-life hangover (Stuart Nicholl) weighs relentlessly on the mind and body of Danny, humorously depicting the physically and mentally debilitating effects of hangovers. As the play progresses, however, the hangover's becomes less clear-cut as the character transforms into and interchanges between a friend of Danny’s, laughing about his memories of drunken nights, and a haunting reminder of the dangers of alcoholism. This flitting between moods is less than successful and serves only to confuse the message of the play. Although Elliot and Nicoll should be applauded for their engaging and emotive performances, it is a shame that Elliot's clumsily written script hinders the pair in this way.

The company describe their piece as containing many stories and personal experiences from its own company members. The result of this is to allow one to draw upon personal memories to empathise with the protagonist’s situation. However, these stories and personal experiences tend to throw up only the tired issues all too frequently presented to audiences at the Fringe. The issues such as separation, domestic abuse, cancer and suicide are discussed with a lack of inventiveness and sloppily thrown into the piece, without ever properly being expanded upon.

The play is effective in showing the consequences of human actions and, combined with the duo’s powerful performances, it contains some emotive scenes. However, given the lack of subtlety of the writing, it is tempting to think that Elliot may have a more promising career as actor rather than playwright.