Charlie Sonata review wayward odyssey of a drunken dreamer

Royal Lyceum, Edinburgh
Sandy Grierson brings humour and bitterness to Douglas Maxwell’s tale of a redemptive mission, directed by Matthew Lenton

The eponymous figure at the centre of Douglas Maxwell’s wayward theatrical odyssey is less a hero than a heroic drunk. He’s a man never happier than when giving advice about achieving the perfect alcoholic hit, a task he performs with the dedication of a shaman. Played by Sandy Grierson, legs apart as if he’s wet himself, stooped forward as if ready to wretch, he is vulnerable, perplexed and never sober. Yet he has the saintly quality of an innocent who sees only good in the world.

Maxwell writes as if under the influence himself, his script a free-associative meander through a mind with a provisional grip on the line between past and present, truth and metaphor. Whether that mind is Charlie Sonata’s or Maxwell’s own is a moot point. Either way, it’s a style well suited to director Matthew Lenton who moves his excellent nine-strong company fluidly across Ana Inés Jabares-Pita’s open set of neon signs and inky black floor.

Silhouetted as if trapped in cathedral vaults by Kai Fischer’s lighting, the characters look like archetypes, but they’re archetypes in search of a myth. For all the references to Sleeping Beauty (Sonata is on a mission to resuscitate a 16-year-old coma patient), this is a play struggling to forge a fairytale out of life’s disappointments. Maxwell does finally reward us with the “apotheosis” he jokingly promises, but he wades through much bitterness to get there. It makes for a dreamlike play that is awkward and idiosyncratic, funny and fascinating.

• At the Royal Lyceum, Edinburgh, until 13 May. Box office: 0131-248 4848.

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