Review Roundup: KING TROLL (THE FAWN) at The New Diorama Theatre

Finalist for the 2023 Women’s Prize for Playwriting, King Troll (The Fawn) is a dark and otherworldly thriller about two South Asian sisters, desperate to escape the border regime without losing their humanity. Is that even possible on this island? A dystopian exploration of migrant experiences in all their complexity. 
 
This world premiere production stars Diyar Bozkurt (The Turkish Detective), Ayesha Dharker (Coronation Street), Zainab Hasan (Antigone, Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre),  Dominic Holmes (Black Superhero, Royal Court) and Safiyya Ingar (The Witcher).
 
This play is Sonali Bhattacharyya and Milli Bhatia’s third collaboration as writer and director, following Chasing Hares (Young Vic/Theatre Uncut) - winner of the Theatre Uncut Political Playwriting Award and the Sonia Friedman Production Award, and Liberation Squares (Brixton House), nominated for two OffWestEnd Awards. The duo first worked together on a Kali workshop and reading of King Troll (The Fawn) in 2021 and are delighted to be able to share a full production with audiences this Halloween season.
 
Riya and Nikita navigate the increasingly authoritarian island where they live in wildly different ways. Insecure, stateless, both desperate for somewhere to call ‘home’. Riya is offered the chance to create an advocate in the form of a homunculus, or fawn, and sees a chance to elevate herself above the cruelty meted out to others. Nikita tries to keep her saviour complex in check as she negotiates the challenges and hypocrisy of the third sector, where she supports migrant teenagers. Her deep connection with one client forces her to confront the limitations of her work. King Troll is about the troll that lives within all of us - whispering ‘me, not us’, and definitely ‘me’ first. See what the critics are saying...

Josh Maughan, BroadwayWorld: While I can’t say I was a massive fan of the ending – it felt a little rushed and melodramatic – I was completely mesmerised walking out of King Troll (The Fawn). Mesmerised by the strength of these communities, and mesmerised by the five sensational performances that exhibited it. By the final scene, so much has unravelled that Nikita and Riya are left uncertain if they’ll ever meet again. I, however, truly hope we’ll see them return – this show deserves a long life ahead of it. It captures the heartache and urgency of our times with a spine-tingling poignancy few other works manage to achieve.

David Jays, The Guardian: Chasing Hares, Bhattacharyya’s 2022 play, threaded fable through harsh realism. Here, extended scenes of a hostile environment and coercive bureaucracy are grimly familiar – but the wilder Bhattacharyya’s imagination, the sharper the frisson of cruelty in both folktale and politics. The fawn is an amalgam of our precarious fears and petty grievances, while the island’s politics are as intransigent as the trolls of folktale: “Never ask them why.” Directed and performed with electric vigour, it makes for a tense thriller.

Anya Ryan, Time Out:  Some of the scenes between Nikita and Tahir, the asylum-seeker she supports, lack charge compared to the rest of the play. But, King Troll remains a thumping parable about the human crimes of now. Digging into what it means to be othered, this production sizzles and stings. 

Becky K, Theatre & Tonic: The show is capped off with outstanding acting performances, with each member of the cast rightfully owning their role. A particular favourite of mine was Ayesha Dharker’s portrayal of Shashi as she provides Riya with the tools to create The Fawn. Appearing only in a couple scenes, Dharker’s dark, powerful wisdom intertwined with South Asian humour is a scene stealer. On the other end of the spectrum, Diyar Bozkurt’s emotive performance as young and out-of-luck migrant Tahir adds to the heartbreaking narrative Bhattacharyya explores with how vulnerable people are exploited. 

Harry Bower, All That Dazzles: My criticism of the piece is in its pacing, and the journey to its conclusion. I actually like the ending - which I won’t ruin here - but ended up leaving the theatre feeling like I had whiplash by the unclear way in which the play jumps forward in time so rapidly. Movement pieces used throughout are presumably designed to illustrate a sense of being one with your inner monster and to demonstrate Riya’s submission to temptation, but against the backdrop of the chilling score and blinding strobe, in reality this ends up being just a bit weird and unconvincing.