On the face of it, a Cornish folk tale combined with a solo comedy-theatre performance sounds like an interesting concept which could really grab the audience’s attention. In Drenched, Daniel Drench promises to take us on a journey, as he recounts the tale of The Mermaid of Zennor with the help of traditional Cornish storytelling, dance and sea shanties.
Dan Frost plays Daniel Drench, a prolific and unstable storyteller from Cornwall. Unstable is the important word here, because it’s hard to know where the character will go next, from the outset it feels angry and aggressive, childlike and petulant. The biggest problem is that most of the audience haven’t realised that this is a character, instead they believe there is a very angry performer on stage who is in danger of storming off at any moment, and they don’t take kindly to it.
Despite performing alone, Frost is able to ‘interact’ with other characters through pre-recorded voices from the tavern, or the church, or whatever the setting may be. These reminded me of the sound effects of an educational installation in a museum, the crackling fire too loud and the voices bland, uninteresting and drawn out, they didn’t really add anything to the performance, or the story which was already struggling.
The actual Cornish folktale could actually have been quite interesting and enjoyable, and the production does get things like the lighting right, creating a strong atmosphere. Also, Frost plays his character well, perhaps too well because the execution just doesn’t work, Drenched neither sets the audience up, or enlightens them on what’s actually happening.
Hearing the audience reaction as we filed out of the far too hot Bunker Two was interesting, because people were genuinely angry at the stand-offish nature of the performance. I’m fully convinced this is all part of the act, an attempt to be funny or edgy, but people just didn’t get it. Drenched was perhaps aiming to be innovative, instead it is awkward and painful to watch.
