28 – 29 October
1988. It is Memorial Day weekend in Thessaloniki, Ohio, a remote backwater in the American Midwest. And at Terry’s Cars and Automobiles, four employees have been given the challenging task of selling 66 cars in just four days in order to secure their bonuses and avoid a financial crisis for the dealership. Such is the premise of Brillig theatre company’s clever, witty and highly original satire of the American Dream.
There is more than a touch of Wes Anderson’s visionary style in this darkly funny tragi-comedy which debuted at the Brighton Fringe Festival in May this year before a stint at Edinburgh’s Fringe, followed by a national tour which concludes next month. A blend of absurdist humour, music and physical theatre, the production leans thematically and satirically on Theodore Dreiser’s 1925 novel, An American Tragedy: both texts explore themes of societal pressures and the inevitable downfall of their helpless protagonists in their attempts to survive in a world driven by the inexorable and unforgiving wheels of capitalism.
A versatile and multi-talented quartet showcase their musical and physical theatre training at the prestigious School Jacques Lecoq in a breathless 60-minute show which bristles with acrobatic energy, quirky songs and surrealist madness. All four members of the sales team have their own tale to tell: manager Tom (the excellent Seamus Lavan) a former high-school football quarterback is terrorised by cruel and demanding owner Terry, who remains silently and menacingly off-stage; top-seller Sheila (Florrie Taylor) struggles as a busy working mum who risks missing out on her own son’s life; French immigrant Henri (Zenon Malhaire) has hit a lean spell for sales but also faces an imminent test to qualify for his dream of American citizenship, whereas new arrival Kelly (Ellen Jackson) is given precious little time to learn the ropes before she can earn the right to don the company’s red, white and blue uniform and become one of the team. Jackson’s singing is particularly powerful and impressive, but all of the cast members contribute to the show’s original and powerful music.
The close confines of the Everyman’s Irving Studio provide the perfectly intimate setting for this absorbing show – one which would struggle to scale up to a larger stage – whilst also facilitating the show’s clever ending which proves to be a neat theatrical trick. In true fringe fashion, the production makes clever use of minimal sound, lighting and props too. The choreography is slick, the pace rollicking, the enjoyment and engagement levels high.
Amongst all of the madness and mayhem, the tale has a darker side too. Increasingly preposterous TV ads are filmed over the Memorial Day weekend in the relentless drive to drum up sales, a reflection of the almost impossible pressures which face these small, symbolic cogs in the larger capitalist machine. Willy Loman-like, they must sink or swim each day of their lives, only to wake the next day to do the same. It is a clever, funny and thought-provoking tale.
★★★★☆ Tony Clarke 29 October 2025
photographers credit @ Leela Gaunt
