Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *
Cast: Immie Davies, Matilda Reith, Jack Solloway, Isaac Whiting.
Art, as the most profound suggest, should always comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable, it is only in challenging any set down convention that we grow as a society and whilst there are subjects in which it is impossible not to feel any type of revulsion, that don’t just make the stomach want to heave slightly at the thought, sometimes, and quite rightly, we should and must find ourselves listening to a slightly different view. It is only in that we can question and probe our own psychology deeper and our understanding of the world, especially those in which commit the heinous act and those who scream vitriol and abuse as if appointed judge of all.
Footprint Theatre’s Daniel is the perfect example of this, a play that you cannot help but be affected by and one that wonderfully has you questioning your own prejudices, your responses to lesser crimes, to actions taken against you personally and whilst it will shake you, it will also act as a reminder to be wary of the dark that resides in your own heart.
The guilt of online pornography, for women and for men takes many forms and as sex driven animals, no matter how enlightened we believe ourselves to be, the stir of something to move us, to excite us into action is always at the inner most base of our carnal, animalistic, minds.
Whilst some could be seen as harmless titillation, there are those to whom the online gesture of straight forward consensual sex between adults is nothing more than a fantasy, Footprint’s Immie Davies, Matilda Reith, Jack Solloway and Isaac Whiting show that we might all know someone who goes that step too far in their habits and the sheer evil it represents; the question always being, do you try to understand or do you shun the person completely, cut them out of your lives as you would quite naturally a criminal of such magnitude. It is a sensitive question, it is one that some might argue should not even pass the lips but what if that person was you, what if you had been left behind by your peers and friends and there was no way back.
There is no right answer and it is one that is uncomfortable to think of but in any decent society, not one fed by the instant justice of mob rule on any platform of social media, questions should always be asked, if only to highlight your own prejudgment.
A play of colossal bearing, Daniel is not an easy subject, it is not for the faint heart but it is for those who seek answers. Superbly acted, voices in the dark driven, a play of absolute magnitude!
Ian D. Hall