Delirium

Article by: Edna Hobbs teaches English at Lytchett Minster Secondary, Dorset

The black programme with its snarling bull terrier promises Enda Walsh’s Delirium will be something different. Based on Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov and created in workshops with ‘theatre O’ it is a fascinating production with lots of good ideas, but ultimately lacks the clarity of the novel. I felt that an opportunity was missed in not setting the play in the Britain of Dawkin’s God Delusion, where the faith versus atheism debate rages on in a modern context.

The problem, perhaps, is that the play would be confusing for somebody unfamiliar with the original, and unsatisfying for somebody who knew it well. This is not helped by the fact that the brothers lack the consistency of character necessary as personifications of dramatically opposing outlooks.

Nonetheless, it is a good piece of theatre, worth seeing if only for Lucien MacDougall’s powerful monologue in his role as Smerdyakov, accompanied by an equally striking animation by Paddy Molloy.