Nice Fish

I watched Nice Fish at the Harold Pinter Theatre last night and loved it. I would give it a 5/5.

It's a crazy doodling piece of art. Two friends go ice fishing, well only one of them is fishing, but two go ice fishing. And then they talk about life and how things turned out in their lives. Except it's not in a boring meandering brooding way. But in a, well meandering brooding way, but not boring and not "artsy" deep, just plain hilarious. They meet some characters who may or may not be there but that doesn't matter. Because it's funny and it's true. I think that's where the play got it right - not just the funny bit but the true bit. Well not entirely true, but generally true.

Mark Rylance was fantastic as this dim old fella. He was so good at the end, I almost cried (or was that because I was laughing so hard? I can't remember now). There were some incredibly funny lines that I would fondly recollect and start laughing all over again. I believe it was also co-written by him. I suppose it's comic surrealism if there is such a genre.

The sets were bare and well-done in this tiny theatre space. There was attention to detail like that little train moving in the background. They used dollhouses and puppets, which probably has a deeper meaning, but to me, it just seemed like nothing should be taken seriously. Could the sets have been better? Probably. As K pointed out, spring didn't see the ice melting and no one was really slipping. The puppeteer deserves an applause for subtlety. I didn't even realise there was a puppeteer, and I thought it must be a battery operated doll. The scene of a wind storm was beautifully done, but by the actors than anything on the set.

It's still playing if you want to watch it. I would highly recommend.