The Ballad of Johnny 5 Star
What a strange piece this one is, somehow evoking the spirit of a fifties B-movie, setting it in the modern day and enticing the audience along a road that ultimately leads to nowhere.
Johnny 5 Star is a homeless drifter with aspirations of being a musician in the mould of the classic fifties idol. His affair with a married woman begins a train of events that should result in a spectacular denoument but actually fizzle out like fireworks on a rainy night. Quite why this should happen is a mystery - ironic, considering it is mystery and suspense that is lacking through most of the show.
Performances are excellent. Wesley Walker as 5 Star is cool, enigmatic and charismatic. Frank Nall as Kip, the husband of the woman 5 Star is seducing, is a passive/aggressive flipping between heartache and irrational anger. And KK Dodds oozes sexuality as bar manager Joyce.
Having said that, her character never becomes the femme fatale she threatens to be and that is true of the whole piece. While this play could have been a paean to Americana, a David Lynch-style unnerving mystery set within the traditional huntin’ and shootin’ machismo of the US, it takes a path through the conventional and loses its way.
Production information
- Management:
- Secret Life Theater
- Run time:
- 1hr 30mins
Production information can change over the run of the show.
Run sheet
- Hill Street Theatre Edinburgh
- August 6-17, 19-29 2004
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