The world of the titular bellringers Clement (Luke Rollason) and Aspinall (Paul Adeyefa) of Daisy Hall’s new play, seen recently at London’s Hampstead Theatre following a run at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival, is seemingly approaching the end of days.
The pair are trying to avoid brimstone, fire, floods, fungus, locusts and any other manner of plagues by ringing the bells in an attempt to clear the storms – superstitions abound when they are your only defence against biblical doom. It’s a job that requires much waiting around and with time to kill comes conversation and a little absurdist humour to make light of the situation.
That may sound like the beginning of a Waiting for Godot-esque tragicomedy but Hall’s text simply doesn’t have enough humour for it to land and, in Jessica Lazar’s production, it feels like a play that doesn’t quite know what it wants to be. Is it about the big picture of the climate crisis, the men’s relationship under the microscope, or both things? What is it saying about either of those things? After 80 minutes with these bellringers, I couldn’t quite say.
Rating: ★★☆☆☆
