Review: THE WOLVES AT THE DOOR, Oran Mor

Part of the A Play, A Pie and A Pint 20th anniversary Autumn/Winter season, The Wolves At The Door is a new play written by Jack Hunter and directed by Amie Burns Walker. 

Daniel (Ciaran Stewart) is a man struggling with the cost of living crisis. He lives in a one-bedroom flat with mould up the walls and when his young daughter stays at weekends, they sleep on the sofa in the living room. Daniel has asthma and his living conditions don't help his breathing.

It's Sussanne (Beth Marshall)'s first day on the job working as an engineer for an energy company. Due to Daniel's lack of payment, she's under instruction to install a new prepaid meter which will cost Daniel more money and allow the company to recoup some of his debt. Malc (Ben Ewing) is a young man who is employed by the energy company's debt recovery team and has no qualms about making a bad situation worse for people. 

Jack Hunter's writing is sharp in this dark comedy drama. Malc tries to justify his actions, claiming that Daniel just doesn't have his priorities straight- holding up a tin of ground coffee as evidence. If you were struggling, wouldn't you switch to instant? Sussanne is the more reasonable of the two, trying to find ways in which Daniel would qualify for additional support and make his life easier. 

It's a fairly bleak situation that Daniel finds himself in but this script manages to find the humour in the absurdity of it all. 

Credit: Tommy Ga-Ken Wan

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