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 The Theatreguide.London Review

In March 2020 the covid-19 epidemic forced the closure of all British theatres. Some companies adapted by putting archive recordings of past productions online, others by streaming new shows, and various online archives preserve still more vintage productions. Even as things return to normal we continue to review the experience of watching live theatre onscreen.

Bellringers
Original Theatre Online   December 2024

In Daisy Hall's play, seen earlier this year at the Edinburgh Fringe and London's Hampstead Theatre and now online via Original Theatre Online, two men stand around waiting for a potentially life-changing event.

They wonder what it will be like, fill the time with small talk, fret some more, distract themselves, pause to pray, affirm their love for each other and generally prepare themselves for a climax we begin to suspect may never come.

In other words, the shadow of Samuel Beckett hangs visibly over this one-hour play. But that is no bad thing.

At the very least it shows that Hall has the good taste and good sense to be influenced by the very best. And Hall moves beyond her model in both metaphysical and emotional ways that make Bellringers thought-provoking and evocative in original and satisfying ways.

The play is not what Hollywood calls High Concept – that is, its premise can't be summed up in a catchphrase (“Rocky but in outer space”).

We are somewhere in the distant past or future where the basic human social unit is the village, and humanity, evidently lacking science or technology, can only deal with the world through religion or superstition.

And the world has gone haywire, with suicidal dogs, feral mushrooms and frequent deadly thunderstorms.

Perhaps because it seemed to work once, the standard defense against those storms is ringing the church bells to scare away or counteract and neutralise the tempest.

And so we meet two young men (Luke Rollason and Paul Adeyefa), whose turn has come round to face the elements, waiting for the peak of the storm and their cue to fight back.

Playwright Hall has learned well from Beckett that the play does not lie in any events, but in what the two characters do while they're doing nothing, and what we learn about them from watching them do nothing.

Her discoveries are not very far from his. The lads are not particularly bright or insightful, but they are far braver than even they realize, truly dedicated to each other, and determined enough to stick to the job they've committed themselves to even if it might prove pointless.

Just as it really doesn't matter whether Godot ever shows up, we don't have to find out if ringing the bells accomplishes anything. You hear in this play a distinct echo of Vladimir's 'We have kept our appointment,,,,We are not saints, but we have kept our appointment.'

Hall is somewhat more sentimental than Beckett (as how could she not be?) and the play shows more open affection for its protagonists and encourages more emotional involvement with them.

Director Jessica Lazar has guided her actors to find all the opportunities to make us care about them, generating a warm loving tone.

Luke Rollason's character is both the more intelligent and the more frightened of the two, while Paul Adeyefa plays his friend as more stolid, protected somewhat from the full awareness of their situation by a disinclination or limited ability to think about it.

Buried somewhere in all this is an essay on ecology and climate change, but Bellringers is bigger and better than that. It is a play about the human spirit that invites you to feel as well as think, making for a thoroughly satisfying hour.

Gerald Berkowitz