Foxfinder

Director – Maria Manning

Playwright – Dawn King

Director’s Synopsis of Piece:

When William Bloor, a ‘foxfinder’ arrives at the Coveys’ farm, he has only one aim – to use the education he’s been given to seek out and unearth the fox, an animal threatening their very civilisation. However, as investigations proceed, the revelations and events which follow change their lives forever.

My Interpretaion of Foxfinder:

Once again I had not heard of this piece previous to its announcement as part of the Dramat season 2013/2014. I had no expectations going in to this piece and did not know what to expect. The result was quite surprising. This piece verges on theatre of the absurd but is too heavily based in realism that it is quite hard to categorize the piece. The drama contains some very dark coronations and imagery which I was not suspecting prior too or even at the beginning of the performance. The writing steadily builds a trust between the drama and the audience allowing the writing to push more and more absurd messages in tot the laps of the audience members. It was a fine example of cleverly executed and subtle writing that demands quite a lot from the audience even if they are unaware of what id being asked of them. Below is a video where the artistic director of Artists Rep theatre explains the piece a bit more in-depth.

The piece itself, as mentioned in the video above, is a great platform for whatever topic is being discussed in society at presently. Because representation and symbolism are key to the figure of the fox in the piece, the audience can impose any meaning or message to the piece without the dialogue or delivery of the piece ever-changing. The writing is a chameleon of sorts that takes on the body of what is being discussed of the time. This is a sign of a piece of drama that will not age and constantly mantain relevance to the audience.