Based on a true story, Kate Barton’s play Fast invites its audience into the disturbing world of “Dr” Linda Hazzard (Caroline Lawrie), whose controversial fasting diet method claimed the lives of multiple patients in the early 20th century. In particular the play focuses on the case of Claire and Dora Williamson (Jordon Stevens and Natasha Cowley), two wealthy English sisters who sought Hazzard’s help, with tragic consequences.
The premise of the play is already chilling enough, but director Kate Valentine’s production ramps up the creepiness to the point where you wonder how Hazzard could possibly have got away with it for so long. The design work by Emily Bestow (set and costumes), David Chilton (sound) and Ben Bull (lighting) is pure black and white horror movie: the sanitarium is dark and echoey, with flickering lights, ripped and stained curtains and sinister dripping noises. From the start, its owner has every appearance of being a fanatic, who makes up her patients’ room by pulling the beds out of the wall just like drawers in a morgue. Watching the Williamson sisters check in strongly resembles the moment in a movie when the unwitting victims enter the haunted house of their own free will, despite everyone in the audience willing them to run the other way. Throw in a power cut, a thunderstorm and something very bad waiting to be discovered in a bathtub, and you’ve got the makings of a very creepy play indeed.
All this leaves us in no doubt that Linda Hazzard was a monster, who preyed on the anxiety and gullibility of her patients, starved them for weeks on end, and then stole their possessions after they died. What the play doesn’t do so well is to explain why she did any of this. Caroline Lawrie is excellent in her portrayal of the “doctor”, and it’s clear from the earnest way she addresses the audience that she genuinely believes in her own methods (so much so that in the end, she herself died as a result of them). But the horror movie aspect is such a dominant presence throughout that this clearly complicated character lacks depth, and even when Hazzard raises reasonable points – such as the media’s insistence on calling her a “woman doctor” – it’s difficult to see her as anything other than a self-serving villain.
Her victims, on the other hand, are far easier to relate to, their vague health concerns and desperate need to believe in anything that will make them feel better all too recognisable over a century later. Natasha Cowley and Jordon Stevens make a strong and convincing partnership as the chalk and cheese sisters, the former no-nonsense and cynical, the latter romantic and dreamy. Once inside the sanitarium, their one hope of salvation is Daniel Norford’s charming and resourceful Horace Cayton Jnr., a journalist who follows his instincts and ultimately plays a key role in bringing Hazzard to justice.
Taken at face value as a thriller, Fast works well enough, and the production is particularly strong from a design perspective (although – small gripe – some of the sight lines could be improved; sitting three rows back, it’s hard to see what’s happening at ground level, much of which is pretty important). At times, though, it feels like the play is too caught up in the undeniably gory details of “Dr” Hazzard’s career, and consequently it fails to open up any meaningful discussion about how or why such a horrific chain of events could have taken place. Similarly, there are parallels to be drawn with the fad diets and wellness trends of the 21st century, but these aren’t really explored in any depth. Based on a repellent but fascinating historical figure, the play doesn’t quite live up to its potential – but as Halloween approaches, horror movie fans will certainly find plenty to enjoy in this chilling new play.
Fast is at Park Theatre until 9th November.
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