Review: Kate Barton’s Fast
In today’s society, questionable holistic health trends, hapless weight-loss pills, and the latest Ozempic craze, have capitalised modern medicine, influenced by uninformed celebrities and social media. Nonetheless, such medicinal ‘treatments’ have actually been around for a while, illuminated by the true story of Dr Linda Hazzard. Kate Barton’s Fast explores Hazzard’s controversial fasting cure used on patients in the early twentieth century, where the cast delivers a chilling and gripping performance.
Recounting Dr Linda Hazzard’s (Sarah Thom) memoirs with interspersed mini monologues, the play’s premise centres on sisters Claire (Maia von Malaisé) and Dora (Imogen Gray) Williamson who are travelling across America and seek out Hazzard’s help with their ailments. Set in the cosy upstairs of The Gatehouse, director Stephen Bennett manipulates the space well, as the audience is transported from the steamship, enhanced by the apt sound effects particularly of the onerous horn, to the sanatorium where two shabby beds occupy the stage. With the dimmed and flickering lighting, the sanatorium’s dinginess and disquieting environs is certainly felt.
Upon visiting Hazzard, the naïve sister Claire is immediately convinced in the wonderous powers of Hazzard’s fasting cure (quite alike to how you believe you have every possible illness as soon as you Google your symptoms!), but Dora is indeed the opposite with her scepticism. Malaisé and Gray are perfectly cast as they bounce off each other to deliver seamless cues and a riveting double act.
Sarah Thom is an excellent Hazzard – her melodramatic gestures, self-conviction, and cartoonish expressions, lure both the Williamson sisters and the audience into her grip. Hazzard, revelling in her patients’ gullible natures, was quite the charm as she reassured the Williamson sisters that they were in the best of hands, which in turn made her character all the more unsettling. With occasional breaks of the fourth wall, Thom becomes more tangible as a notorious figure, enabling the audience to remain enchanted in her mad methods, until the very end to her demise.
Alongside the horror elements that make this the ideal scare for a Halloween night, Barton underpins the misogynistic attitudes of the time. Whilst this vein could have been studied deeper, the play suggests a patriarchal gaze, as Hazzard strives to prove herself as a successful female doctor in a field dominated by men.
Jermaine Dominique, who plays journalist Horace Cayton, adds a touch of humour with his one-liners, and steals the audience’s attention who eagerly anticipate his unravelling of Hazzard’s deeds and exposure to the world. This parallel thread maintains the play’s pace, successfully building tension to the point of climax when Cayton and Hazzard come face to face in the eerie sanatorium.
With a run time of 1 hour and 45 minutes, Fast will leave the audience ‘starving’ to discover more about the life of Hazzard and her motives and desire to establish herself as a female doctor. Whilst Fast would likely be enjoyed by all theatre-goers, it would particularly appeal to horror movie lovers, and is an ideal way to spend a cold, dark, winter’s evening.
Fast is showing at The Gatehouse from Tuesday 29th October to Sunday 17th November 2024.
