Photo credit: Pamela Raith
It’s always a pleasure to return to the Downstairs space at Hampstead Theatre, a venue where so many authors have seen their early work realised. It’s vital work for a theatre to do, and all the more impressive that Hampstead have continued to present new work despite all the difficulties this presents.
Daisy Hall’s Bellringers was at the same venue in 2024, and widely seen as showing promise, and the dark but often comic Dogstar similarly impresses. There is something of a common theme of the mystic amidst reality, with the glowing mushrooms of the previous play replaced here by the visions seen by the ice-bound whaling crew.
Only five crew remain as the play begins, after the privations of scurvy and the voyage on the whaling ship Dogstar have seen off the others, though their bodies still lie on the ice. Another crew member dies offstage, and the unseen captain soon meets his fate. There is another death to come however, as we all expect if we are familiar with Chekhov’s rule: "If in the first act you have hung a pistol on the wall, then in the following one it should be fired."
The first crew member we meet is young newcomer, Sam (Abdul Jalloh in an assured performance). Alone on the deck, he dreams of getting home and remembers the celebrations when he was the only crew member to harpoon a whale on the trip. That whale, though, was a baby, meaning the oil produced was minimal and many on board resented the killing of a young creature. Gorey (Adam Rojko Vega, coping well with all facets of his character) joins Sam on deck and gives the latest news of their dying shipmate, before they are both joined by the older Babben, linked to Gorey by his nephew Charlie. As Babben, Justin Edwards is superb: we feel the pain of his gangrenous legs as much as the anguish for his family at home.
In a play in which families are one of the themes, the shifting relationships between these three characters are based on their common aims as well as their lives beyond the Dogstar, their Devonian background only hinted at by a trace of a West Country accent. All three actors impress, and create characters that are both believable and believably cold, always a big ask at close quarters in a balmy theatre. Designer Hannah Schmidt has created not only a suitably confined below deck setting but also costumes that tell not only of the cold but of the dirt and grease that is part of the onboard lives of these men. Her set is beautifully lit by Holly Ellis.
As the men discuss their fate and await whatever the future holds, there are echoes again, as in Bellringers, of Beckett’s Vladimir and Estragon. As they talk, they are suddenly surprised by visions of the Devon they have left behind, and, they believe, the ship owner they have never met, Mr Carmichael. Bridging the real and visionary words are items that cross over, first a watch and then a dressing gown.
It is high praise for director Lucy Morrison that these episodes are taken totally seriously and we buy into them totally, whether we consider these are the hallucinations of men with scurvy or something more metaphysical. Her production is well paced and engages throughout, even during those sections when the dialogue is perhaps less absorbing. At times, we do find ourselves wondering which two characters have not had stage time together, as each of them finds a reason to go elsewhere. Daisy Hall will need such sympathetic directors if she is to make the mystical a continuing part of her work, as may be indicated by a forthcoming play about a giant eel.
Dogstar is not quite a full-length play at 1 hour 25 minutes with no interval; perhaps the addition to the cast of the unseen captain might have shed more light on the ship’s owner as he would presumably have met him. As it stands, this is very much the kind of short play to be seen on the Edinburgh Fringe, and will certainly meet the current demand for ever rarer intervals and audiences willing to forgo them.
Daisy Hall is an author of promise who is well served by cast and director of this fascinating glimpse into nineteenth century whaling life.
*** Three stars
Reviewed by: Chris Abbott
Dogstar plays at Hampstead Theatre until 5 Dec, with further info here.
