Inis Nua's 'Long Live the Little Knife' is full of pleasant curiosities, but not for the faint of heart
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If you're the sort of shopper who wants to find shirts in a shirt department, it's not your thing.
'Long Live the Little Knife' at Inis Nua
Katie Reing
Katie Reing
David Leddy’s Long Live the Little Knife, a 2013 Edinburgh Fringe hit now receiving a stylish production at Inis Nua, is like one of those enormous weekend flea markets you find in country towns. Everywhere you turn are curiosities — the pleasure (as well as the challenge) is to make sense of it. If you’re the sort of shopper who wants to find shirts in a shirt department, it’s not your thing. If you love the sense of exploration, you’ll have fun — but it’s not for the faint of heart.
Liz and Jim, Little Knife’s two characters, are embarking on a career in art forgery. The business isn’t totally new to them — they’ve previously trafficked in knockoff Prada bags and fake high-end watches. But the stakes are higher here, and their new line of work brings Liz and Jim into a very unpredictable world — a story they narrate with panache. Liz and Jim, you see, are their own best creations.
To all this, Leddy brings vivid imagination and a gift for wordplay. On opening night, much of the audience laughed appreciatively, though as with other Fringe imports, the frame of reference is often unfamiliar to Americans.
I admire Leddy’s virtuosity. But Little Knife mixes edgy fun with some very serious topics — the disappearance of authenticity and other, even darker elements (not to be spoiled here) — and I don’t think the play pulls it together.
Director Tom Reing has given Little Knife an ingeniously staged production, and the company — Tim Dugan as Jim, Corrina Burns as Liz — throw themselves into it with brio. With a short running time (65 minutes), it never drags.
Ultimately, I think the old adage applies here — for those who like this sort of thing, this is the sort of thing they like.
Through Feb. 22, Inis Nua at Off-Broad Street Theatre, 1636 Sansom St., 215-454-9776, inisnuatheatre.org.
