Back At The Dojo

Lally Katz returns to Belvoir with Back At The Dojo, to tell the story of her parents, Lois and Dan, meeting in the 1970s in New York. At the same time we see Dan (Brian Lipson) practicing karate moves by Lois' hospital bed, before his reverie is interrupted by his granddaughter, Patti (Luke Mullins), a transgender woman who models herself on Patti Smith. Thus we are split between the present and the story of young Danny (Harry Greenwood) in the late 1960s/early 1970s.

Easy comic moments come from observing Patti as she is mesmerised by the '60s/'70s action, eating oranges in order to dissipate her high, her eyes wide, seeing a side of her grandfather she'd never thought about. It's a clever device to allow us to jump back in time all while staying in the hospital ward, Patti's "bad trip" showing her (and us) Danny's trip to Kentucky and his time in the New Jersey karate dojo, where he met Lois (Catherine Davies), the older sister of Jerry (Fayssal Bazzi), whose emotional arc is the play's most moving.

It's a play that focuses on identity, as Patti returns to her family to find a sense of peace and comfort, and as Danny attempts to recover post-LSD binge. He finds himself, and love, in the dojo. Harry Greenwood's performance is tender, particularly in scenes with the warm Davies. Mullins and Lipson's relationship seems real, each actor imbuing their character with a sense of desperation and quiet strength, even through uncertainty. But it's the words that come from their lips — via Katz — that make this play sparkle. In the end however, the sparkle and sense of joy, doesn't quite pull two disparate narrative threads together.