Words: Rosie Hall

3 stars

Terry’s: An American Tragedy About Cars, Customers and Selling Cars to Customers whisks us to 90’s Thessaloniki, Ohio. It’s crunch time at Terry’s Cars and Automobiles: to make up the month’s targets and avoid being in the dreaded red, colleagues Sheila, Kelly, and Henri must lock in over the Memorial Day weekend and sell, sell, sell! Manager and ex-high school football star Tom, meanwhile, is feeling the pressure from elusive, menacing boss Terry, and becomes increasingly, manically desperate for his team to succeed. 

The concept is strong and slick, the tight deadline becomes a ticking time bomb that inherently pulls the narrative along. The characters, too, are well-wrought and unique, Ellen Jackson as the initially anxious new recruit Kelly a particular highlight. There are some lovely bits of physical theatre, too, such as the wonderfully silly inflatable love interest that we meet in the latter half of the show.

However, Terrys… takes a little while to get into its stride, the sparse production elements not quite enough to lift the audience completely into the shiny, freshly-waxed world of Terry’s Cars and Automobiles. The incorporation of a fuzzy electric guitar, sliding in at the half-way mark as a backing to the slowly bubbling tension, is a fantastically effective artistic choice: but felt like it would have been beneficial to the production from the get-go. The earnestness of the characters and their maniacal desperation to succeed pokes fun at capitalism, patriotism and the folly of the American Dream, but doesn’t quite transition to comedy as easily as one might hope, despite the setting and subject matter being ripe for quick gags. 

Regardless, Terrys… is still an enjoyable and unique debut show from Brillig Theatre; one with clear potential, even if this is not yet quite entirely realised.

Terry’s: An American Tragedy About Cars, Customers, and Selling Cars to Customers
Pleasance Courtyard: Beside
12:55
30th Jul – 25th Aug