Arsenal and No Trace, Collective Theatre Review
Written by Jenna for Theatre and Tonic
Disclaimer: Gifted tickets in exchange for an honest review
Christmas, murder, cannibalism…it sounds like a recipe for a festive classic, right? Sadly for me, there were a few missing ingredients.
It is important to mention that this was the first preview, so the play is perhaps not yet as polished as the cast and crew would have liked.
Arsenal and No Trace, a play based on a short film written and directed by one of the lead actors, promises ‘sharp wit, unexpected twists and the thrill of live music’. For the most part, it delivers on these, and the live piano playing by Anthony Fort was a nice touch, bringing a creepy-yet-Christmassy feel to the theatre. The script, while not overly witty in my opinion, does provide some twists, although not entirely unexpected ones.
Arsenal and No Trace tells the story of two glamorous and eccentric sisters Angela and Eleonora, luring a lonely, young computer repair man Dominic to join them for Christmas dinner with their beautiful niece Natasha. Unable to resist the portrait of Natasha, Dominic agrees, and the sisters prepare for their feast. Their neighbour Riccardo visits and tells them about his crime column and the recent investigations into young men going missing without a trace in their local area of Arsenal, and always around the holidays. They also receive a Christmas Eve visit from two police officers investigating the mysterious disappearances. This eclectic group of characters played by the seven actors sound interesting enough, though for me they lacked depth and their motives were questionable.
For a self-proclaimed dark comedy, I felt the play lacked much humour, aside from some imaginative and funny improvisation by promising young actor Jahrhys Greenidge as Dominic during his solo scenes, as he pocketed items in the flat while the sisters changed. However, the funniest moment for the audience was Eleonora’s sultry performance of ‘All I want for Christmas is You’, singing to the drugged-up Dominic on the sofa. While the cast made attempts to build intrigue and suspense, this often fell short when trying to combine the subject matter with comedy. In addition, the script was perhaps under-rehearsed at this stage, as the actors often delivered their lines over each other.
The set design by Millie McAvoy and Alice Henderson was good; the vintage furniture set the ambience of an inviting London flat shared by wealthy women. However, the set changes were painfully slow, with the table setting for Christmas dinner being far more involved and precise than it needed to be. The costumes were simple but effective, although the timing of cast changes could have been better thought out to prevent such large gaps in the action.
The story plods along rather slowly until the last ten minutes or so, when the plot twists suddenly come thick and fast and you find yourself questioning who had been behind the abductions. By the end of the play, I was still unclear on several points of the plot, and the final twist felt unnecessary and rushed. Sadly this was not the clever or unexpected ending that I was hoping for, so the whole thing left me somewhat bemused. It did however give me and my companion plenty to talk about afterwards, and perhaps the directors were aiming for the audience to make up their own minds about ‘whodunnit’.
If you love a mysterious tale with a plot that will have you thinking long after you leave the theatre, then you may enjoy the story of these sinister “sisters” in Arsenal & No Trace.
At Collective Theatre until 17th December
★ ★
