Theatre

World Domination

Oran Mor, Glasgow

Mary Brennan

three stars

DOWN in her basement Dungeon, Karen (Louise Ludgate) has already slipped into uber-high heels and a seriously clingy black latex body suit, wearing it with the true aplomb of a dominatrix accustomed to having the whip hand with her clients. Ropes, handcuffs, a golf club (!), Karen is clearly equipped to cater for all punishing preferences. What she’s not equipped to deal with is the sudden arrival of Anne (Hannah Donaldson), the sister she hasn’t seen for two years. It’s their estrangement that’s the festering crux of the matter in Lesley Hart’s two-hander, directed by Jac Ifan Moore and presented here in association with the Sherman Theatre, Wales.

Anne’s tale of getting clean – no more drink or drugs, no more aimless drifting, just a longing to reconnect with her Aberdeen kin – only convinces Karen that her ever-dependent sister is on the scrounge again. This time, however, it’s Anne who has something to give, if only Karen could admit that she’s now the one whose life is disintegrating in a haze of self-delusion and denial. To give you any more details would fillet the plot-lines from Hart’s somewhat brief script. All credit to her, however, that – aside from some hard pressed allusions to a trussed-up dummy as Trump – she doesn’t exploit Karen’s dominatrix trade, or the action sequences, for cheap laughs. Instead, she turns it into a mask of confident control, a life support in every sense for a woman in hiding from the body blows of everyday realities. With an increasingly cash-strapped Aberdeen as a backdrop, there are nods to what women, and men, will do to get by. However, what does it take to find peace of mind, or indeed happiness? Ludgate and Donaldson deftly navigate some moments of improbability in the dialogue, as they steadily reveal which sister has the upper hand when coping with harsh truths.

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