See Thru Sam

The Adventures of See Thru Sam, although it marks another variation in Random Accomplice's approach to theatre, captures the vitality and character of the company as they enter into their tenth year. Writer/director Johnny McKnight and producer/performer Julia Brown are both intimately involved in the creation of the piece - recently, McKnight has been playing away, mostly with pantomimes but also in the NTS' Appointment with The Wickerman, leaving Brown at the helm for the Double Nugget tour.

It aims at a younger audience than previous RA plays - the Big Gay Trilogy and Small  Town had a far less innocent vision of sexuality and while McKnight has talked about how his own life influenced the character of Sam, it's clearly not another semi-autobiographical number. Indeed, the depiction of school and home life makes See Thru Sam far closer to the issue-based plays often aimed at adulescents.

Fortunately - like David Greig's two plays for young people, Yellow Moon and The Monster in the Hall - McKnight's take on the struggles of the young adult is driven by character, not issue. There's a slight suggestion towards the end that Sam does suffer from some form of mental ill-health, when his aversion to green becomes pathological and he takes drastic steps to escape a vicious, but childish bully. And the plot is driven by Sam's attempts to cope with his parents' death: yet the script is far more interested in the way that the mythology of superheroes can provide a sense of identity to an outsider, and in the details  of the teenage crush than any grand statements about grief or alienation.

Teaming with an illustrator allows Random Accomplice to animate Sam's expansive fantasies: the use of video projection places Sam in a world that he can constantly manipulate through his imagination. A simple blank wall becomes isolated light-house, classroom or, in the romantic scene, a bedroom full of potential and promise: Sam is literally moving through a world that shifts according to the rules of comic book art.

Sam is a sympathetic hero, if sometime inpenetrable: the scene where his uncle tries to deal with Sam's inappropriate behaviour is at once recognisable - the inter-generational conflict, the mutual lack of respect and understanding - and disappointing, since it doesn't give the uncle much reason for his worries and is set, oddly, in the school. While McKnight is appropriately serious about the gap between Sam's fantasies and the reality of his parents' death, the final scene is undermined by having had Sam narrate most of the action: if death is seen as irrevocable in the case of Sam's parents, it is sentimental, even unimportant, in the finale.

Yet McKnight's gift for comedy, and a fast pace, ensures that See Thru Sam is engaging and entertaining. It struggles with resolving the various deeper issues, but thrives in moments of evocative detail - fear of the bully, that first crush, the doubt of the teenager, the bonds of friendship. It has the qualities expected of a Random Accomplice production: the appropriate adventurousness of format, cheeky humour, energy and charm. And it adds another level to their versatility.

That Festival Date...

See Thru Sam: Truncated manuscript, fragments 1 -9

...most of all, The Incredible Adventures of See Thru Sam makes me feel old. It's in the quiet moments, perhaps not necessarily connected to Sam's melodramatic fantasy world, when he acts like an innocent teenager, trying to articulate the feelings of falling for the girl, or the fear of the bully. Emotions that I recognise but can never feel again, lost in maturity and experience.

The audience is predominantly made up of school pupils, arrayed in rows with a teacher at each end. They enjoy the bursts of naughty language and chuckle at the adults acting children. Sam's nemesis, his uncle Herbie, is played for laughs: the confrontations between the grieving Sam and his foster parent are presented both in real time and in silhouette, through Kim Beveridge's digital design, as a battle between comic book characters....

McKnight's script reveals his experience in pantomime: Sam's side-kick, Walrus, mugs gamely for all the world like a teenage Buttons...

... when the animation shows a scene - Violet's bedroom, the street outside Sam's school - the script has a bad habit of describing what is up there on the screen... less show or tell than show and tell...

...a version of the tragic structure described by Jean Anouilh, the inevitable conclusion clear from almost the very beginning...


...back to the problem of "the critical voice": my experience precludes me making a strong assessment of See Through Sam because it is not aimed at me...

Sam's perky good humour is gradually replaced by a more sinister alienation: whether this is a function of his grieving or some kind of personality disorder - the obsession with the colour green, initially part of his memory about his parents' death, is revealed as an earlier, inexplicable anxiety - is never quite clear...

... yet another twist in Random Accomplice's decade long journey through theatre: a play aimed more at teenagers... if Small Town was an adult bawdy romp, See Thru Sam transposes the broad humour into a tragedy...

...obvious research into superheroes, using the nuances of the Superman mythos to define the boundaries of Sam's experience. Indeed, Superman is a motif throughout, and Sam's geeky knowledge provides him with a few clues that help him understand his own experience...

Vile Magic... (And Eric's Cafe...)

This is a public apology to the always wonderful Niall Morris. As head of Subcity Radio, he has introduced a smooth new logo, made the first foray across to Edinburgh (broadcasting On The Fringe) and add an extra forty minutes to the end of this episode of The Vile Arts Radio Hour.

This apology is followed by a second apology to Eric Karoulla. Eric's debut interview, with the lovely Peter McMaster, is repeatedly interrupted by Vile, who was supposed to be off looking after his next guest, Vanessa Coffey. Before Eric even got to start the interview, Vile had bumped it back later in the programme, so he could talk to Nicholas Bone, who is the director of Magnetic North's Sex and God.

Perhaps I could apologise to Mr Bone for getting the name of the show wrong at one point. And to Ms Coffey for not recognising her from the show I had seen her in a week ago, the Promethean Fire Into Song.

While I might wish to apologise to all listeners for my tone of voice and persistant lack of research, I am specifically apologising for the length of this episode. But it is worth a complete listening. There's some really creative swearing on the Azaelia Bank's tune, and the exclusive track from Lou Prendergast is a rare chance to hear some reggae on the hour.

If I had done some research, I might not have been so surprised at the amount of stuff my dear friend Jer Reid is up to this week. Another apology...

And sneaked away at the end is a chat with Johnny McKnight and Julie Brown. The full version of this interview will appear on our Soundcloud very soon (as soon as I find My Producer Harry). In the meantime, The Adventures of See-Thru Sam is touring Scotland.


Listen here!