Night of the Giant, the newest work of UH Honors College English professor John Harvey, engages its audience with a menagerie of child abuse and family dysfunction.
Giant bears close resemblance to Harvey’s 2007 play Rot. The action occurs in a gloomy, disheveled house tended by an emotionally disturbed family. The family has many repressed memories that are revealed throughout the play.’
Both plays have a twisted father and two angry daughters seeking retribution for a dark history of exotic child abuse.
As Giant is a dialogue-driven play, little transpires on the set itself.’
The characters’ histories are retrospectively pieced together in overlapping strains of biased, fantastical and gruesome storytelling. There is no real plot to follow and the physical stage directions are dull.
However, Harvey’s diction and singsong style emblazon thick imagery into the surrogate stage of the mind’s eye.
Giant integrates live instrumentals directly into the performance, complete with an original score written by composer Elliot Cole.’
As the characters converse, their moods and inflections are accentuated by clarinet, saxophone, cello and an accordion. ‘
Because of the eerily coordinated conversations and the poetic intermingling of music with monologue, one doesn’t feel like a witness to a real event, but like a sightseer in an insane asylum.
Harvey’s presentation dwells in between the unspeakable and the unthinkable. Most of the play’s themes are taboo and he sneaks them in at odd angles.’
Harvey did admit in an interview that he, too is bothered by his own plays. He emphasized that he is trying to entertain, but that he is also trying to explore disturbing new feelings for the audience.’
If viewers can properly decipher Harvey’s often subtle and serene style of poetry, the play does have that redeeming value.’
Night of the Giant will be playing Oct. 2 and 3 at 8 p.m. in Ovations Night Club. For more information visit http://www.mildredsumbrella.com
