Review: SIX SERPENTS AND A TARANTULA, Hen & Chickens Theatre

A town in the middle of nowhere, a violent relationship, a heinous crime, a tell-all letter. Wyoming, 1888. The gold rush came and went in the American state, leaving marks only in the popularity of Belle, the star of the Mermaid brothel. It's "A story about tyrants and those who survive them" tells one of the five prostitutes who's going to catch us up with the facts.

Six Serpents and a Tarantula is a throroughly appealing show on paper. A cool and catchy title accompanies the compelling concept: fate will decide who plays who. A member of the audience spins a fake gun, the actresses sing a haunting song as they get dressed, and the play begins. It's a shame that, ultimately, the project is quite a letdown.

Running at over 90 minutes, it's too long for the material and fails to engage the crowd as it should. It should be a firecracker of a show, but it's tame and trite instead. Bouts of rough and primal poetry twist onto themselves, becoming clichés that land without a sound. While the real story of Belle, "The Woman in Blue", is true and fascinating, writer and director Maryanna Clarke's script is heavy and would benefit from some trimming.

This noticeably affects the pace as well and, with the decision to do without an interval, the performance ends up being a big chunk of words, unrealistically overly well-spoken characters, and (very pretty) acapella harmonies during the scene changes. They endeavour to expand on feminist themes, but it's sadly nothing to write home about.

Belle and the madame of the brothel discuss violence and abortion, but it seems like an afterthought buried by the toxicity of the American frontier. The piece also sees some tonal issues that make it run low on homogeneity. The comedic tidbits are frankly brilliant, but unfortunately clash massively with the rest of the writing.

All in all, it's nothing that some more refining won't help. At this stage, though, it feels like it wants so badly to be a western film modernly written for the stage but regrettably remains only the confused and prosaic shadow of it.

Six Serpents and a Tarantula runs at the Hen & Chickens Theatre until 13 November.

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