Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes tells the simple story of a group of friends with dramatic ambitions. Warren (William Harmar), Niall (Andrew Nimmo, who also directs), Ian (Innis Thorborn) and Helen (Heather Linn) are a set of old pals who have hired a small church in which to host a night of mythological storytelling, and hopefully secure funding from a local arts body.
However, the group’s usual dynamic has been thrown off by the bringing of proper actor Evan (Ewan Jardine) and mythology student Simon (Sean Lewis) into the mix. The resulting arguments and clashes put into peril the very reason they got together in the first place.
There’s something quite bizarre about a show that seeks to portray the very real clashes that take place during artistic endeavours; particularly ones with poor leadership and egotists at every corner. There’s so much going on in the piece that sometimes it’s hard to know where the play is going and what it’s actually trying to say. While the characters and cast are solid in their roles, be that Warren’s incompetent leadership, Evan’s preening self-importance or Helen’s frustrated annoyance at being constantly sidelined, it’s wholly believable. But none of them are likeable characters, meaning it's hard to engage emotionally and root for them to succeed. It’s a brave show that does its utmost to make the characters almost painfully difficult to spend time with, and yet that’s rather what Folk'd Up Theatre have created here, intentionally or not.
The story itself leaps in fits and starts through the creative process of them all disagreeing about the content and direction of their storytelling show. In doing so, it leaves ample room to spool out myriad threads, with character beats hinted at but rarely followed up on. The overall impression left is that the audience are simply supposed to draw their own conclusions about everyone, as other than a brief conversation about Dungeons and Dragons and the Legend of Zelda, we learn fairly little about anyone involved beneath their archetypes.
It’s mildly frustrating, as it’s quite entertaining, as the bones of a really good show are here, but it all needs to be stitched together in a way that tells a more compelling story, where the character’s actions feel understandable, rather than just funnelling the arguments to a slightly unsatisfying conclusion.