john hodge – devizine.com

by Ian Diddams
images by Josie Mae Ross and Richard Fletcher

John Hodge is well known for his screenwriting of “Shallow Grave”, “The Beach”, “A Life Less Ordinary” and “Trainspotting”, as well as plays such as “Collaborators” which played at the Rondo Theatre last June. This week sees his latest play “Flatpack” appear at the same theatre with the same company, RTC, in a world premiere.

Director of “Flatpack”, and “Collaborators” last June, Matt Nation says “I directed Collaborators at the Rondo last year. It went very well, and John was kind enough to support the production. So when we jokingly asked him if he had any more scripts up his sleeves – we weren’t really expecting him to say yes. But here we are – a brand-new John Hodge play”. And John himself says “Watching ‘Flatpack’ come alive for the first time has been a privilege and a great experience”.

But enough of the show’s program’s plagiarism as review padding! “Flatpack” centres on a young married couple David (Richard Chivers) and Hannah (Naomi Miller) who buy a run down flat with excellent views of the railway, who have best friends Fiona (Sophie Kerr) and Tom (Rob Finlay). The flat is sold by an estate agent Philip (Jon Thrower), and this is all more than ably supported by an unnamed police detective (Andy Fletcher), equally unnamed doctor (Verity Neeves) and kitchen designer and wannabe artist Ryan (Toby Farrow). David’s life is thrown into disarray when he received not a death threat but a death announcement – June 27^th 2025 is his final day of life. His increasing fixation with his impending death somewhat glosses over his relationship with Hannah, who falls for the charms of another, and his volun-selected triathlon training. Not to mention him succumbing to a femme fatale herself finding the idea of his approaching alleged death erotic. The detective provides a narration/ Greek chorus role piecing the story arc together and used as a MacGuffin to tie up plot lines. David returns again and again to the Doctor, who themself flits between altruism, greed and compassion with his story-line. Ryan is an over confident kitchen designer feeding his own internal lack of self esteem aching for an alternative life to which he was never suited, and finally the estate agent is one of those annoying characters in life that you can never seem to get rid of and you are never really sure why they are there – we all know the type.

The writing is unsurprisingly absolutely superb. The story arc moves smoothly with no fat, incorporating clever – nay brilliant! – time line and intra-scene flips to create a seamless transition from the “now” to the future and back again at all times explaining and developing David and Hannah’s relationships. I particularly liked John Hodge’s little homage to his own play “Collaborators” with a tiny reference to an unseen and barely mentioned work colleague of David’s with regard to the unforeseen effects of a rashly invented suggestion.. The set (Production team, Yvonne Paulley, Alex Oliviere and cast) is simple but highly effective – itself used as the flat’s front room, cafes, restaurant, wine bar, friend’s dining room, street corner, doctor’s surgery, garret flat, police station and a bathroom all created impeccably with a sofa, armchair, dining table, a kitchen unit, street lamp and a hidden boudoir. Not to forget either the as ever excellent tech provision by Alex Latham all held together by stage management from Alana Wright and Maria Finlay. A mention must also go out to the costumes – which at least for Fiona were simply stunning, and for Tom an intriguing stream on a set of shirts… the cast all provided their own wardrobe and it proved to be a superb directorial touch.

The casting was simply perfect. The characterisation just exquisite. Not a single weak part – testimony to great writing, great acting, great direction. Richard Chivers excelled as the uncertain, distracted and overwrought David as his life begins to unravel around him as his fixation with flatpack kitchens increases. The connections are provided in the play itself but the analogies of his marriage and a uncompleted kitchen unit combined with the juxtaposition of his social entropy and kitchen improvements are clear and the perfect holistic encompassing of the overall story. Naomi Miller as Hannah was as sweet and loving as a wife can be but we see the cracks in their marriage early on and her falling for the louche charms of Toby Farrow’s Ryan is a natural result of David’s loss of focus on her; Ryan is wonderfully cringy and hilarious in turn.

Sophie Kerr’s Fiona and Rob Finlay’s Tom as their best friends are wonderfully awful. Self-centred to a tee, their portrayal of a couple blundering through life as social panzers is hilarious. Tom is obsessed with triathlon and promotion, bung full of toxic masculinity and without an empathetic bone in his body. Fiona as catty as can be, happy to see those around her fail – and never more excited (and jealous) of others’ misfortunes. Verity Neeves as the doctor shows great skills in presenting youthful compassion, with personal greed but eventually shows her caring side at one time being the only person that actually sees David for what he is going through and has become.

The estate agent, Philip, played by Jon Thrower does a great job of being the spare part in the whole play – the annoying character that keeps turning up for no real reason, not particularly impressive as an estate agent… so why does he keep getting in the way of David’s life?

That just leaves the Detective played by Andy Fletcher. Andy does a phenomenal job – as mentioned before Greek chorus and MacGuffin combined. And a harmonica player to boot as well as a handy publisher of useful kitchen safety tips…

Overall a wonderful world premiere to get to see. How lucky are we all to have such a chance to see this at a community theatre performed by such an adept company with such great writing.

So does David actually die on July 27^th 2025? Far be it for me to spoil the ending – there’s one way to find out though!

“Flatpack” shows from March 26^th to 29^th at 1930 at the Rondo Theatre, Larkhall, Bath.

Tickets from https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/whats-on/bath/rondo-theatre/flatpack/e-vkmvkq

The concept of historical brutal dictatorships and comedy is not necessarily one that one considers as workable. Yet the likes of “The Producers” and “The Death of Stalin” show that the right level of satire can over come any qualms that may exist. John Hodge’s play “Collaborators” continues this trend as an Stoppard-like surreal absurdist comedy about the relationship between real life characters Joseph Stalin and Mikhail Bulgakov, which the Rondo Theatre Company are performing this very week.

John Hodge may be better known for his scriptwriting on “Shallow Grave” and “Trainspotting” amongst other blockbuster films but here in “Collaborators” he ratchets up the satire and hinges his story on a Machiavellian plan by Stalin toward the dissident playwright Mikhail Bulgakov.

Director Matt Nation has created a demanding – in effect – two scene play into a smoothly choreographed storyline, as the simple set of the Bulgakov’s Moscow flat replete with huge Soviet red star also covers the Lubyanka, theatre, rehearsal studio, doctor’s surgery, hospital, kremlin basement & metro, all clarified by Alex Latham’s subtle lighting changes, The cast smoothly transition between these environments adeptly – such is the skill of particularly community theatre in representing multiple arenas in a limited space.

Act 1 is pure absurdist comedy. Bulgakov is pressured into writing a play for Stalin’s birthday, that ends up being written by Stalin himself while Bulgakov ends up running the Soviet Union. Its silly, its surreal – action also happening in Bulgakov’s head at times but just on the end of Act 1 the plot twists darkly.

Act 2 is pure black comedy. Though as the end of the play approaches is not so much comedy as horror as the repercussions of Bulgakov’s well intentioned “decisions” as a proxy for Uncle Joe come clear and those chickens come home to roost. Tragedy would be as good a description as the show reaches its denouement.

Weaving this excellently crafted and delivered tale are the cast of fourteen. Principal characters are unsurprisingly Stalin – complete with swept back hair and bristling moustache – played by Andy Fletcher, and Bulgakov played by Jon Thrower. They portray this odd collaboration skilfully and sympathetically, Stalin as an almost genial and friendly Uncle figure, Mikhail as the distrusting and incredulous playwright.

Mikhail’s peer group is comprised of his loving wife Yelena (Lucy Upward) portraying her increasing desperation and concern as to his health, Vassily an aging Czarist (Jonathan Hetreed), Praskovya a history teacher (Verity Neeves) that cannot discuss history before the revolution, and Sergei (Charlie Bevis) who have been billeted in the Bulgakovs’ small flat – Sergei lives in the cupboard! On this note the cupboard is superbly used as the entry and exit of Mikhail’s dreams/hallucinations and also the secret Kremlin door (!). Charlie’s portrayal of the enthusiastic young Soviet is touchingly naïve, and the group rub along despite their clear and evident differences in opinion and approaches to life under Stalin. Completing Mikhail’s peer group are Grigory (Toby Gibbs) a young writer struggling to get his work published due to its anti-Soviet content and his wife Anna (Elisabeth Calvert) reflecting the times’ oppression.

Bulgakov’s doctor is portrayed amusingly (in all the right ways!) by Tim Hounsome, all overworked, distant and slapdash until treating the elite, while “the actors” are just wonderfully performed by Josie Mae-Ross and Richard Chivers, floating in and out of Mikhail’s dreams as well as acting out the play Bulgakov is “writing” … Richard’s homage to Ernst Stavro Blofeld is almost a show stealer in itself.

Last but not least we come to the menace in the play – the NKVD officers.
Vladimir (Tom Turner) is quite brilliant as the jocular yet disquieting secret policeman who becomes more luvvie and obsequious as the play develops. Its unfair to pick out individual parts as “show stealers” especially in community theatre, but it would be remiss of me to not to praise one particular performance in this play. Tim Carter plays NKVD policeman number two, Stepan. A silent, brooding presence he delivers the real – literally unspoken – menace throughout whilst being at the back of the stage mostly. Its not until the very end that he comes to the fore in his own right, but it’s a special skill to not be heard but be influential in the action and Tim really nails the requirements.

Vladimir’s wife Eva is played with an almost cameo performance by mainstay of the Rondo theatre company, Alana Wright, who manages to stave of the unwanted attentions of Stepan… mostly…

Aside from Alex on lighting, Dylan Jackson provided sound tech and as a team they had a busy time and completed everything to perfection – this is a tech heavy show so huge congratulations to them. Other crew aspects were indeed “collaborated” on (d’ya see what I did there? ) by all of the above – set design and build, stage management (including Toby Skelton), costumes and publicity which was aided and abetted by Lisa Hounsome and Richard Fletcher with photography.

“Collaborators” is a fast paced, thinkers play – although the allusions to modern day Russia are evident and lie not very far beneath the surface. Some genuine laugh out loud moments, some shocking moments and Stalin’s final words to Bulgakov sum up the regime’s totalitarian control in a nutshell.

“Collaborators” is showing at the Rondo Theatre, Larkhall, Bath from June 19^th to 22nd at 1930 every night.