Tusk Tusk

Patalog Theatre’s Tusk Tusk is a challenging and disturbing play which uses the turbulent emotional lives of a trio of abandoned children to explore the twisted dynamics of a hyper-dysfunctional family. Starting by showing the antics of a pair of siblings, Maggie, played by Markella Kavenagh, and Eliot, played by Ben Walter, it soon becomes obvious that these children, with vague mentions of a mother who seems to have gone missing, have been abandoned, no matter how badly they don’t want to admit it. The script itself is a spiny and hulking thing – there’s scenes which are electric and deeply compelling, and others which feel nauseatingly tedious. It’s a script that’s not afraid to make its audience uncomfortable, as Eliot, who starts the play as a touch mischievous but ultimately good-hearted, dabbles in desperate cruelty in his attempts to resemble the man he so badly wants to be. Kavenagh as Maggie squeezes each drop of righteous fury from the script, and the dynamic between the teenage siblings, as extreme as the situation turns out to be, shines with truth — director Ruby Rees has done an impressive job of cultivating the authenticity of their relationship, Walter and Kavenagh playing off each other with panache. However, the script seems to try too hard to constantly be clever and even outrageous, which lets down the more sympathetic aspects of the play.

That said, the whiplash between carefree hedonism and anxious boredom that defines much of the play’s emotional arc is wonderful to watch. It’s a hard task to manage the intensity of the play, and both Walter and Kavenagh are impressive in the ways they maintain the balance — not to forget Liam Smith, who plays seven-year-old Finn. The youngest member of the cast provides much of the laughs, while also signalling the carelessness with which the characters have been abandoned and the very real danger of their situation. Lucy Ansell as Cassie, the girl Eliot uses to distract himself from his situation, is a highlight, shining with wit in her brief but memorable appearances. For all of its charms, though, the end of Tusk Tusk oversteps the mark — not a fault within the production, but that of an overlong script. By no means an easy play to watch, Tusk Tusk has rich rewards for those looking for something dark and sinister in their theatre.