The irrationality of humour is central to much of writer Alex Franklin’s work. His Michaelmas term project, The Life and Death of Chuck Salmon, “tight-roped on the boundary between the dark and nihilistic, and the absurdly gelastic”, according to one esteemed commentator. Anyone who saw the re-run of Baby Steps last term will attest to its surreal, absurdist roots: vampires ate ‘moles and voles’ for breakfast, high court judges morphed into street dabbing skateboarders, and Zumba classes turned psychotic. Franklin’s is a very particular style of comedy, understood by none, yet enjoyed by many.

“One sign of this maturation is his willingness to morph and develop his very malleable script”

Conviction, his most recent endeavour and first attempt at a fully-fledged play, is no different. In this innovative piece of new comic writing, prison warden Adam McDonald (George Solomou) is only three weeks into the job when he begins to forge unique relationships with five of the prisoners. While each interaction is, in essence, a Baby Steps-esque sketch, director Jasmin Rees notes how these comic exchanges are underlined by a more serious message: “while, of course, Alex’s writing is first and foremost funny, it isn’t superficial. A narrative of morality and a questioning of faith runs beneath the lines”. It is not that Franklin’s surrealism has been tempered by the ‘serious’ form of the play; it has simply matured.

One sign of this maturation is his willingness to morph and develop his very malleable script to suit his six actors. Jamie Bisping, who plays the enigmatic K-Jay, believes that this has allowed each actor to essentially write themselves into their roles: “although we are playing upon motifs absurd and unbelievable, the freedom we’ve been given allows us to see ourselves in each character. It’s deep stuff.” Jamie’s character, for instance, has been embellished with a whole range of facial expressions, to match the actor’s performance style. By coincidence, the actors are all first-years, giving the rehearsal space an excitingly fresh energy. 

“It all amounts to a highly unique performance of the surreal, dark, and absurd”

From self-indulgent priest Remy (Rory Russell) and childlike Dember (Freya Ingram), to robotic introvert Oakley (Olivia Miller) and rage-filled, bitter Ludo (Eliz Avni), the prisoners all exhaust and bombard the naturalistic warden with their quirky and bizarre stories. He is the monotone plane on which their performative wackiness can flourish. Ludo, for instance, once achieved orgasm by stabbing a pigeon while reading Moby Dick. We’ve all been there. Avisodomy is just one of many eccentricities hidden in Conviction’s locker of psycho-sexual whims.

As the reader may have surmised, the humour of the play arises from the slightly-off, the surreal, and the disjointed. Chains of logic are established that have absurd premises. Gnomes must be amphibious if they live by water and are cold-blooded, to take one example. Oakley’s monologues are rife with unusual word play and strange imperatives. Hyperbole plays a huge part in Franklin’s writing, as does what he terms the ‘twist and reveal’, leaving the unexpected to the last minute in the scenes. It all amounts to a highly unique performance of the surreal, dark, and absurd – a combination not often found in Cambridge theatre. 

In Conviction, Alex, with the help of his production team and actors, has – somehow – succeeded in transferring his fantastically wacky ideas from his frontal lobe to the stage in a suitably ‘accessible’ form. I highly recommend going along.

Conviction is on at the Corpus Playroom at 9.30pm, 23-27 January