Rambunctious new play “The Wild Sighs” delivers on-the-hoof hilarity

Those who were privy to the bout of storytelling that came kicking and bleating onto the stage of the Alec Clegg Studio for three consecutive nights from November 30^th to December 2^nd are likely not the same people today that they were before then. What was quite apparent in attending a performance of “The Wild Sighs”, produced by the Open Theatre, was that audiences were shocked, riveted, challenged, and delighted all at once by what they saw. Above all, there was rarely a moment in which even the subtlest expression of laughter did not make itself well-known in the room.

The play was best enjoyed for its absurdity and plot, which was anything but predictable, when approached without any prior knowledge of its subject matter. Nevertheless, a synopsis was provided on the event’s TicketSource page:

“A lonely Hiker unwittingly wanders into the middle of a fierce rural dispute. Janine, the prize-winning sheep of a local Farmer, has gone missing. But who has taken her? Could it be the shadowy Farmer King hell-bent on ruining the Farmer’s life? Or perhaps the Old Man with his anarchist tendencies and suspiciously large rucksack? Who knows? Who cares? The Hiker certainly doesn’t. He just wants to walk.”

The intrinsically humorous nature of the situation at the centre of the play made ample fodder for a stampede of gags, witty repartee, and comedic set-pieces which rarely received anything less than the audience’s fervent approval, and which often came about so naturally that it would be interesting to find out whether any given bit arose straight from writer-director Dillon Dowson’s pen or from the creative impulses of the actors in rehearsal. With that said, strong voices were evident on either side of the line. Dowson and co-director Thom Zeff imbued the action with a degree of precision and detail which made an otherwise ludicrous story and concisely decorated set feel part of a lived-in and all-encompassing ewe-niverse of its own, though never too rigid to where the sculptors’ hands were visible.

This is in part because the play’s greatest asset was quite possibly its cast, who portrayed some of the most oddly specific characters put to page of late with instinctive understanding and compassion, almost as though their dialogue was written with only them in mind. A particular favourite of the audience was Callum Smith as the “Farmer King”, the impossibly self-absorbed aggressor of agricultural society whose every inflection and gesture seemed to send tremors of amusement into the ceiling.

Equally, the principal trio of the play, which included Ginny Davis as the “Hiker”, Sara Roche as the “Farmer”, and Samantha Cass as the “Old Man”, led the proceedings with confidence and charm in abundance. It was by means of the Hiker character that the writer-director team was able to use bodily humour traditionally seen as crude to immediately relinquish all possible tensions right at the start of the play in favour of a funnier and more carefree tone while also raising questions about social pretences and constructs which for all intents and purposes have no place in our most natural state. The Farmer’s jarring mood swings were effortlessly captured by Roche which kept audiences guessing throughout, going from authority figure and expert on the land to a tragically whimpering, grieving husk of a man at a moment’s notice, and the Old Man provided perhaps some of the most morbid relief of the entire show, acting on the most steadfast of principles, even at the cost of committing serious crimes against the person.

In part a call to arms, a cry for help, a pastoral tragedy and a baa-rrel of laughs, “The Wild Sighs” came, saw, and conquered, which, ironically, the play would seem to suggest we ought to be doing a whole lot less of as a species.