Ding Dong the Wicked, The Royal Court

Ding Dong the witch is dead, but the wicked survive. Caryl Churchill's new twenty minute, two scene, drama, Ding Dong the Wicked, underscores both the power and the meaninglessness of words. High on tension and low on information, we are deliberately deprived of clues to the inner lives of the characters and left to examine disjointed lines and exclamations in a bid to put meaning to their actions. It's clever, creative, challenging and very dramatic.

The dog of small things

Both scenes include a war, an affair, a dead dog, and someone or something locked in a room off stage. The characters and the stories in each, however, are different, and the props move stage left to stage right. What is identical is the language, but the order of the language and the framework within which it is presented is different. Still deprived of context, we struggle to make sense of events.

Conversely, Churchill's love and information, currently playing in the main house, is packed with vignettes in which the dialogue is so clear the characters are instantly knowable. What Ding Dong the Wicked demonstrates is how even benign everyday exchanges where people continue old conversations, allude to unspecified events and use tribal short-forms, are as excluding to outsiders as they are inclusive to those in the loop. It's a Rubik's Cube drama.

In conclusion: This play is a master class in form more than content. The true value of Churchill's script will be to those students who will hold it to the light on BA English and drama courses and be inspired by her innovation.

References
Royal Court, tickets