MOJO by Jez Butterworth.
Directed by Lachlan Houen. Red
Herring Theatre Company and ACT HUB. Produced by Gwyneth Cleary. Stage Manager Maggie Hawkins. ACT HUB Spinifex St. Kingston.
Cast: Lachlan Herring, Jack
Ferrier, Joel Hrbek, Taylor Barrett, Taj De Montis, Joshua James.
Wednesday January 22 - Saturday February 1 2025
Bookings: https://acthub.littleboxoffice.com
Reviewed by Peter Wilkins
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| Jack Ferrier (Potts), Tayler Barratt (Mickey) Joel Hrbek (Sweets( Taj De Montis (Skinny) Photo Helen Musa |
In March 1995, notorious East End gangster twin
Ronnie Kray died in prison. In July of the same year Jez Butterworth’s debut
play,opened at London’s Royal Court Theatre. Set in a seedy night club in Soho,
Mojo is set during the era of 50’s rock and roll and in the early days of the
rise of the underworld Kray twins with
their penchant for murder, extortion, money-laundering, corruption and every
vice known to the criminal world. This is the world of psychopaths, sociopaths,
enforcers, big time gangsters and their thuggish henchmen. It is 1958. Rock and
Roll has rattled the establishment as the young generation rock around the
clock to Bill Haley and the Comets, or gyrate to the hip-swivelling affrontery
of Elvis Presley’s Jailhouse Rock. Lachlan
Houen, Director of Red Herring Theatre Company’s inaugural production blasts
the auditorium with tracks of the songs of the rock and roll revolution. Times
are changing and Soho sees the rise of gangsters and crims like Potts (Jack
Ferrier) and Sweets (Joel Hrbek), nightclub manager Mickey (Tayler Barrett),
stooge Skinny (Taj De Montis) and nightclub owner Ezra’s son Baby (Lachlan
Herring). This is the world of kill or be killed, violent power struggles and
shady deals to snare the greatest prize, which in this case is rising teen
singing sensation, Silver Johnny.
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| Jack Ferrier (Potts), Joel Hrbek (Sweets) |
At the start of the play, nightclub owner Ezra’s body has been found gruesomely sawn in half and stuffed in two rubbish bins. Suspicion falls every which way and the inhabitants of the Atlantic Club are out for revenge in a play that mirrors the East End of Harold Pinter and the violence of Tarantino. Houen keeps the energy racing along. Characterizations are tightly coiled ready to spring into Sweet’s ADHD, Potts’s unstated menace, Skinny’s anxious panic, Mickey’s cool control and Baby’s explosive and violent unpredictability. Houen has cast MOJO brilliantly. An all male cast inhabit their world with riveting conviction. Only diction confounds performance at times as spitfire Cockney and East End accents lose the diction to fully tell the story. The opening scene between Potts and Sweets, beautifully played by Ferrier and Hrbek with a perfect sense of physical character lose much of the dialogue, so that I was left reeling until Barrett’s Mickey clearly revealed that the owner had been murdered and the thriller could get under way. This production of MOJO, so splendidly performed with detailed attention to the unsavoury and largely unlikeable characters of the period would have benefited from the careful attention of a professional accent coach.
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| Lachlan Herring (Baby), Taj De Montis (Skinny) |
Having said that in the hope that the actors will pay careful attention to the impact of their dialogue, Red Herring Theatre Company’s debut production promises a very bright future for the company. The actors sport excellent training credentials and their entirely believable portrayal of character and tight physical characterization indicates a level of professionalism that Red Herring aspires to. I wish them every success with future ventures.
In its premiere year Butterworth’s
MOJO received an Olivier Award for
Best Comedy. On the surface this may be an unusual award for a play that is about
highly unlikeable thugs, fools, deadly neurotics and power-mongers. Houen and his company play the absurdity and
stupidity for laughs with an eye for the sudden twists and surprising moments
of danger. In 1995 audiences who remembered the Krays and the rebellion of the
rock and roll era could view Butterworth’s play with humourous detachment. That
detachment is even more pronounced in 2025, and the small matinee audience in the
intimate ACT HUB theatre obviously saw the black comedy in this almost farcical
gangster thriller.
Red Herring Theatre’s production
of MOJO and the promise of things to
come makes a welcome addition to Canberra’s expanding stable of excellent
talent. This is a debut well worth a visit.
Photos: Ben Appleton Photox Photography
