Where are the American accents?
For a show all about American sports and the American Dream,
this absence is a strange choice. It
lends the show an air of polite Britishness that is at odds with the brash
nature of America the cast are trying to replicate. It’s one of many oversights that nags from
start to finish.
In Hokes Bluff performance
company Action Hero attempt to
explore the conventions of American teen sports dramas, but seem to have left
out the drama bit. Instead of presenting
a traditional narrative, they instead meditate on the troubles and pressures of
an underdog sportsman. This mostly takes the form of lengthy monologues,
the action controlled by an onstage referee.
The monologues themselves consist of endless lists of words that sound
convincing, but somewhat labour the point.
As motivational speeches, they lack that over the top nature that comes
from America’s almost religious devotion to sport. Instead, we’re lulled into the hypnotic, downbeat mindset of a generic sportsman that fails to excite: from the lack of visual
interest, to the monotone delivery of lines.
The use of music is excellent in stirring atmosphere,
whether accompanying a (supposedly) erotic changing scene with Major Lazer’s Get Free, blasting out a bit of Rihanna
at full volume, or simply providing mood.
Yet Action Hero rely on the music to create emotion; the performances
alone are flat and vacuous. Not even
dressing up as a tiger mascot can inject some urgency by comparison to the
opening synths of We Found Love.
What’s more, what relevance does this have to a British
audience? Much of our understanding of
these sports and American culture comes from cinema, but whilst Hokes Bluff strives to be cinematic, it fails to comment on the clichés these
films employ.
There’s certainly some comedy in the piece. Those endless lists are full of amusing place
names and American stereotypes; the referee’s increasingly frenzied motions are
particularly comical; and there’s some audience participation that finally adds
some fun in a show that takes itself far too seriously. Yet by full time, Hokes Bluff just doesn’t say very much. How un-American.
2/5
