Claire Sinclair reviews the new Zach Braff play prior to its West End debut.
Zach Braff’s All New People is one of the hottest tickets of 2012. Having come from the Second Stage Theatre in New York last year, its stop at the King’s Theatre, Glasgow, has been highly anticipated. The success is undoubtedly down to Braff’s talent for off the wall comedy; best known for his role in Scrubs and later Garden State Braff is a comedian who knows how to write for the current Facebook generation.
All New People follows Charlie (played by Braff) as he struggles to battle his demons. Catching him at his lowest ebb is British Emma (Eve Myles) who struggles to turn his depression around, all the while blocking out her own past through narcotics. As her friend – and dealer – Myron (Paul Hilton) arrives, closely followed by escort Kim (Susannah Fielding) Charlie’s retreat for peace and quiet becomes a form of emotional rehab centre for them all.
Written by Braff, this play knows how to tap into the zeitgeist – making comment on religion, social media and relationships between people. Yet although this is a comedy, the subject matter is never treated as trivial. Braff has – unsurprisingly – excellent comedic timing and the four personalities we see in the characters gel well together, despite their many differences. What we see are not two-dimensional characters, but a snippet into the many facets of people.
Peter DuBois’ direction includes traditional slapstick humour (it’ll always be funny to see people fall over) yet doesn’t detract from the realism of the performance. Tying video with the stage can prove difficult but DuBois doesn’t shy away from the need for video sections highlighting our characters’ pasts, using video as a way of keeping the past and the present clear to the audience. Alexander Dodge has done an excellent job with the design – we see an upmarket beach house – on a deserted and snowy Long Beach Island, isolating the four from the rest of the world.
While it’s clear from the cheers of the excited audience the first time they see Braff that he provided much of the impetus for the crowd to come, by the end of the 90 minutes they’ve chuckled and truly felt for the characters, and the end cheers are well deserved for all cast and crew.
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