The audience spent the first half of the evening wondering what was happening on the stage as the actors went through their routines, with comings and goings interspaced with conversations that seemed to lead nowhere. Mystery and confusion abounded, even the author Robert King seemed to want to remain anonymous without a biography in the theatre programme. Intriguing to watch, not allowing the audience to relax lest they may miss something. An explanation, well let’s try.

A very opulent set, more akin to a stately home, portrayed what was referred to by the cast as a country cottage, but it seemed to give the right atmosphere. This was the home of Ellen Blake, played with the vagueness required of the part by Britt Ekland, a widow who seemed to have lost her way in the world, a fact that affected everyone else she came in contact with. A mysterious stranger, played with great skill by Neil Stacy comes and goes, being the hub of a plot that becomes apparent after the interval, which allowed the audience to discuss what they thought was going on. One other character appears and that is Douglas Blake, her husband’s nephew, played by Giles Watling, who oils the wheels of the plot. So without giving the plot away what has the audience been watching? The answer is a chess match. If you have the mind of a chess player you will already know what is going on, having worked it out from the play’s titles “The Dragon Variation”, which is based on a move in chess. Lesser mortals would have got a clue from the word variation and who knows what they will have made from Dragon.

Is the play worth going to see? Yes, very much so. It will make your mind work, even if you leave the theatre still wondering what it was all about. The acting was carried out with great skill and the writing showed the devious mind of a chess player. © BA

“The Dragon Variation” is in York on the 22nd of April, 2002 and then continues an extensive tour of Britain.