Doggerel, actually meaning comical and badly written verse, is an original play by Miles Hitchens. Through a narrator (Flora Maxwell) Doggerel tells the story of Vincent Conquest (Hitchens), a late-Victorian poet whose questionable verse not only brands him an accidental mystic, but a misleading memoir title gets him in trouble with the bloodsucking undead. Father and daughter vampire duo Count Sorin (Vivian Wang) and Madame Craz (Lexie Graham) force him into a plot against Dracula author, Bram Stoker (Dylan Stewart), as they believe he is exposing and spreading bad press about the Vampire community…

“The script would have benefitted from helping its audience out a little. We could have done with some pointers along the way”

…I think. I’ll be honest, my friend and I had to spend time post-show piecing the plot together. With a run time of just under an hour, there is a lot to fit in. The script would have benefitted from helping its audience out a little. We could have done with some pointers along the way. There were very few strands of simplicity in the plot, and this is the sort of play you need to concentrate on. Perhaps better use of the narrator could have been made to keep us on track. After all, the main action of the play seems to be a product of her imagination, but while she clearly explained the moments beyond the play’s confines, she could have been a useful tool for clearing up some plot points to the audience.

“It is clear that Hitchens has a firm grasp on what is funny, and the comedy of this play is impressively varied, layered, and interesting”

That being said, where this play suffers somewhat in the large movements of the plot, it thrives in dialogue. The talent of Hitchens shines through. For a play called Doggerel, it fulfils the comic expectations, but is certainly not badly written as its title suggests. Or at least, when Conquest’s poor verse is heard, it is intentionally and comically bad. Hitchens scattered gems of hilariously absurd metaphors that Conquest butchers (‘like a scrotum behind a sheet’ was a personal favourite). It is clear that Hitchens has a firm grasp on what is funny, and the comedy of this play is impressively varied, layered, and interesting. He throws in many literary quips, much to the delight of any Englings in the audience, as well as musical numbers and the odd wheelbarrow montage. Hitchens does not just rely on spoof-like characters to be funny, this is a sophisticated script and high quality silliness.

“Hitchens does not just rely on spoof-like characters to be funny, this is a sophisticated script and high quality silliness”

Hitchens’ talent did not stop at playwriting, the fact that he also wore the co-directing hat (alongside Matilda Barker) while also playing Conquest allows me to safely assume that he wrote himself into this role. I mainly say that because of how well this role suited his comic style, elastic facial expressions, and impeccable comic timing meant you could not take your eyes off of him (and it is quite hard to upstage a vampire). However, this did mean that the supporting cast found themselves in Hitchens’ shadow somewhat, and occasional odd line delivery meant we missed some jokes, or important moments were sped through. All the potential is there, and with the progression of the show’s run Doggerel will only get better as the cast can take a deep breath and trust that the script is funny.

The lasting impression of Doggerel is that the comedy is embedded in impressively thought through layers. The play is not just an extended sketch, and while there is plenty of silliness, its foundation is in concepts of authorship and the power words have outside of the author’s intended meaning. People believe that Conquests’ poems predict the future, when he is in fact a phoney making it all up. The vampires take his memoir ‘I am a Vampire’ too literally, missing that it is a metaphor and they even mistake Dracula to be a work of non-fiction. Hitchens asks interesting questions of interpretation amongst the cloaks and bloodsucking, this is the real triumph of his play.

Doggerel is showing at the ADC Theatre until Saturday 24 February.