King Troll (The Fawn) – Kali Theatre / New Diorama Theatre, London

Sonali Bhattacharyya’s King Troll (The Fawn) is a dark and suspenseful allegorical horror. Get ready for some jump scares, an unearthly creature and, worst of all, the spectre of the Home Office.

King Troll (The Fawn)

What a privilege to see something of this calibre in so intimate a setting as the New Diorama Theatre.  King Troll (The Fawn) is superb.  As allegory.  As theatre which strikes a balance between spine-chilling and darkly humorous.  Really excellent.

King Troll is the latest work by playwright Sonali Bhattacharyya, and is a collaboration between New Diorama and Kali Theatre Company, the latter championing contemporary writing by South Asian women.  It’s the story of sisters Nikita (Zainab Hasan) and Riya (Safiyya Ingar). Things are a struggle for them on this unnamed island.  They lost their mum a while back.  They’re behind on their rent, and Riya can’t work until she gets her immigration status sorted.  Only, there’s a gap in her documents. Maybe their mum’s old workmate Shashi (Ayesha Dharker) can help?  Depends what you mean by help…

And so we meet The Fawn (Dominic Holmes).  Or Jonathan, if you will.  He’s a Hiran. A bit like a Golem, if Golems were very intense and sexually-charged.  He’s intent on helping Riya.  Protecting her.  But he’s going to do it in his own way.  Avoiding any more spoilers, this lifting of the story of King Troll from the crushing and dreary reality of immigration battles (which can also be very well done, as here) into mythical territory allows interesting creative possibilities. 

Through the character of the Fawn Bhattacharyya digs into dark corners, like the unearned but enviable privilege of the generic white man. Or the secret corners of our minds, the tension between public face and private thoughts.  There’s a great opportunity for Dharker to give a brilliant turn as the terrifyingly deranged Shashi and the girls’ profit-driven landlord Mrs. B.  She has a magnetic stage presence that should be studied and bottled. Perhaps the most poignant thing about this exaggerated world is that the cruelty and indifference of the Home Office machinery is sadly accurate.  Let us hope under a new regime that statement will become less accurate over time?  That feels a hollow sentiment, somehow.

It Starts With a Bang

But I digress, I want to talk about how wonderful the production is.  It starts with a bang, fairly literally, between XANA‘s sound design and Elliot Griggs‘s lighting.  After initial blinding flashes, the lighting continues dark and dingy, illuminating (just about) Rajha Shakiry‘s clever set which balances a sense of home with a sense of containment with its perimeter fences. 

I’ve mentioned Dharker’s performance, but she is among a great cast.  Hasan and Ingar negotiate an interesting relationship, from believable siblings to increasingly disparate points on a moral and political spectrum.  Holmes embodies the Uncanny Valley phenomenon as the Fawn.  His movement and speech are so perfectly unsettling that King Troll gave me the first proper chill down my spine of the Halloween season.  And his chemistry with Ingar as they play out an unnatural attraction on stage is sublime.  Finally, Diyar Bozkurt as Tahir brings a poignant reality check to this otherworldly story. Milli Bhattia, directing, wrings every bit of tension from the work, relieving it with Bhattacharyya’s clever moments of humour.   

I think you can surmise by this review that I think it’s a really great production, and I hope it will go on to as great an evolution as some other works that started out in the talent incubator that is New Diorama.  But just in case, better get yourself a ticket before this run ends on 2 November.

Salterton Arts Review’s rating: 5/5

King Troll (The Fawn) on until 2 November 2024. More info and tickets here.