American Poodle

Published Monday 20 August 2007 at 11:15 by Nick Awde

Like some stand-off between rival DJs, this brace of separately penned monologues pits two rival views of the UK and the US head to head.

The result is a funny and often thoughtful whizz through our linked history and culture.

First off is a whizz-through the colonisation of America from the British angle. Directed by Peter McNally, Guy Masterson gets a laugh the instant he opens his mouth as a laconic Welshman indignantly explaining how the Welsh really got there first. He changes to a harder-nosed Londoner who is more concerned with the bigger picture, how Britain wrested a whole continent from its rival powers France and Spain.

But just as America at last becomes British, the colony then breaks with the motherland. The colonists’ “won’t pay, can’t pay” attitude to tax leads to the Boston Tea Party and, handily, American independence. Sprinkled with modern references, the narrative allows Masterson to bring an infectious physicality to his roles, rolling across the stage, for example, as the mad flatulent King George III while getting in neat digs at George W Bush in the process.

In part II we meet an American just off the plane in London for a business meeting. Directed by John Clancy, David Calvitto launches into a verbal diary reminiscent of a 19th-century traveller describing the splendours of some fabled kingdom in the east. He sees what he expects: a land of Shakespearean culture, Pepsyian splendour and Victorian poverty. He wonders which airport corridor leads to “Scot Land”, and sees driving on the left-hand side of the road as one big prank. He is interested in discovering “what God a second-tier nation prays to” and marvels at the dinkiness of institutions such as No.10 Downing Street. His ditty about all the good America has given the Brits, provides as many insane rhymes as it does laughs. Calvitto’s trademark motor-mouth delivery creates a carousel of ever improbable images that reel you into this satirical Dystopia.

Although these are meant to be arty digs by one nation against the other, both pieces in fact hold a mirror up to Britain which is no bad thing.

Masterson’s own script keeps the momentum and satire high but occasionally slips, notably in not providing any meaningful climax for his otherwise energetic performance. It is in the middle of his piece for Calvitto that Brian Parks lets things sag somewhat - for example, the riff on fat-bottomed Americans clogging up escalators unfairly causes the performance to drag.

However the real fun, of course, is in comparing and contrasting the very different styles - actors and writers combined.