Come on Up to the House (2009)

 

Come on Up to the House is a fifteen-minute BBC radio play.  Like The First King of Mars, it’s performed by PC as a long monologue, despite indications that he’s speaking to someone.  The tone and subject matter, however, couldn’t be more different.

 

This play is part of a program that put on dramatized writings based on Tom Waits songs (since, once again, this is radio and has no visuals, Waits is pictured in lieu of PC.)  I’m not familiar with much of Tom Waits’s music, and apart from the brief clips played during the play, I’ve never heard “Come on Up to the House.”  Essentially, the story is a one-sided conversation in which a man confesses his fears, struggles, and heartaches to someone unspecified in the middle of the night.  We get hints of his personal tragedies, his herculean efforts to drag himself through the day, and his musings on the nature of grief.

 

Obviously, PC plays our unnamed man.  We get more of a sense of how he is rather than who he is.  He’s a very thoughtful man who really pays attention to words and their connotations – he mulls over his word choices with fastidious caution.  He’s been “getting by” and pretending to be all right for far too long, and he’s finally hit his breaking point.  There’s pain inside him that simply has to be given voice.

 

PC’s performance is very heartfelt, very affecting.  I’m reminded of his roles in Accused (that oppressive sense of being wrung out by grief) and The Field of Blood (that hurts-behind-the-eyes physical and spiritual exhaustion.)  As with those performances, the relative lack of emotion in his voice only serves to make the emotional content more poignant.  You get the sense that he may not have many tears left in him, but that hasn’t lightened his load at all.  The writing is beautifully sincere, and PC delivers it wonderfully.

 

I’ve always loved the interaction between stories and music.  I think it’s fascinating to listen to a song inspired by a movie or a book, I enjoy discovering poetic homages within lyrics, I appreciate how a well-chosen song can elevate a film or television scene, and here, I really like the way the emotional resonance of a song is transposed into a performed story.

 

Accent Watch

 

Scottish.

 

Recommend?

 

In General – I think I would.  It’s quite melancholy, but it’s written with such loveliness and grace.  Worth a listen, I’d say.

 

PC-wise – Yes.  PC has a great talent for these sorts of quietly-heartbroken characters.

 

Warnings

 

Nothing of note.