The Knee Jerk of Sloth

The difficulty with The Knee Jerk of Sloth, a poetic, heartwrenching tragicomedy written by Pelagie-May Green (who also plays a small but important role), is that its strengths and weaknesses are powerful to an almost equal degree.

In an abandoned glue factory, four homeless people form a makeshift family, with all the dysfunction that implies. Each has their own means of coping with the mutual loss that binds them, until they are forced to face to a new tragedy that recalls the old.

The Knee Jerk of Sloth is a brilliant piece of stagecraft, which glories in the detailed construction of its own world. A series of lamps, dimmed and brightened in sequence, creates a greater sense of atmosphere than most professional lighting rigs could manage. The cast mirror this attention to detail: barely a movement or facial expression passes that does not engage in naturalistic slapstick, unexpected syncronization or the furthering of characterisation.

Alongside these technicalities, the play also achieves successes through simple, affecting moments (a serenade on guitar, which introduces the play's romance, is especially beautiful). However, these cannot fully detract from the flaws of the plot, which feels half-finished: as the characters struggle to react after the central tragedy, the play struggles to find resolution. Also, while it would be churlish to demand realism from an emphatically dreamlike production, the play's treatment of homelessness and mental illness occasionally feels romanticised, if not fully exploitative. Still, the amount of raw talent in A Knee Jerk of Sloth cannot and should not be ignored.