Chase (Michael Simkins) is an American businessman used to getting what he wants. Red baseball cap plonked on his head, he bullies and buffoons his way through a series of deals to deprive a rural beauty spot of its natural resources and turns the area in one giant golf course.
And if the parallels with the fictional character weren’t already clear enough, Hannah Patterson’s new play is grounded in actual events. The Trump International Golf Links in Aberdeenshire, which opened in 2012, has been the site of continued controversy, complete with rumours of intimidation, assault and damage to a Site of Special Scientific Interest. Yet despite its real-life foothold, this often heavy-handed drama is like a politicised version of a low-budget soap opera.
Sophie (Yolanda Kettle), who works in marketing for the diabolical Chase Industries, is selected by her boss to return to her childhood home of Eden to help convince the yokels that selling their land to nice old Mr Chase is a good idea.
Once there, it turns out the new golf course is going to run pretty much straight through the farmland of Bob (Sean Jackson) who is the father of Jane (Mariah Gale), the woman Sophie loved and left to follow her big city dreams of money and success.
It’s a potentially interesting premise, but the moral dilemma Sophie slowly-slowly wanders through is spelled out within minutes. There’s very little tension, the dialogue clunks and dramatic moments of the plot are either entirely predictable or hugely implausible.
That’s a shame, because director Matthew Xia’s production has aspects to admire about it. The small Hampstead Downstairs space has been split down the middle by a thin corporate box that’s gradually invaded by the outside world: sand falls in egg-timer cascades and the walls fade to sunset red (Jasmine Swan’s design).
The cast, particularly Laurietta Essien as the local politician and Simkins in Trump mode, are also largely good, although sadly wasted. Ultimately, like a pesky ball wedged in to the sand trap, this one’s past saving.