For London-based theatre lovers who are not (yet) in Edinburgh and who are looking for something inspiring, some consolation is to be had in We Go Wandering at Night, a new play now on (but very briefly) at the Cock Tavern Theatre, conceived and presented by Define Choice,a trio of actors/theatre enthusiasts established ‘with a view to writing, directing and performing’ their own material.

The subject willingly and explicitly tackled here is faith. Or Faith, rather. The setting is a waiting room with a group of mismatched chairs and a pitiful plant. The protagonist is a ruffled, averagely awkward guy called Adam who is being interviewed, cross-examined and poked at by a God whose voice we hear intermittently as he plays both good and bad cop.

The play is an acting tour-de-force for Brendan Murphy, who plays Adam with an inspiring level of energy, as he goes from intimidated, to bored, to annoyed, to enraged, to terrified and perhaps finally to honest. As he tries to entertain himself while he waits for the elusive intervals when he will be granted a dialogue - desperate in the absence of all the time-killing devices we are so dependent upon - Adam tries to illustrate the solution of the chicken-or-egg-priority dilemma to the sorry plant, and reconstructs whole episodes from his childhood, playing not only himself but also his repressed teacher (a very funny impersonation, as Murphy has a talent for facial expressions), his mumbling and politically correct headmaster, his ‘angelic’ mother and his drunk, abusive father. Did Adam kill himself? Perhaps. Perhaps because, as he puts it, of ‘too much Radiohead’. But this is not his worst sin, and the confession is still to come.

The best passage of the evening might be the one in which a now thoroughly bored Adam stages a sci-fi, puppet war drama using his socks and shoes as American soldiers. This is the point at which Murphy’s comic talent and Paul Ham’s directing intuitions come together in the most spontaneously-feeling scene, one that shows originality and talent. But, not the whole of the play is as successful, and the last ten minutes in particular are its weakest part, confusing and approximative, charged with anecdotes that should be revealing some deep Truth about life and death but sound a bit too much like the result of uncertainty over both the conclusion of the play and the conclusions we should draw from it. I would have been much happier to be left wondering rather than to be suddenly facing a different, more preachy register, which comes dangerously close to self-help.

While We Go Wandering at Night is an enjoyable play, one feels it is not quite as good as it could be; if Define Choice can make the most of their talents, better, exciting things could happen.

Till 15 August 2009