No Money, No Time, No Script: Meadows & Considine Experiment In Edinburgh

“Le Donk” doesn’t aspire to much. Intended only as a DVD release, it essentially feels like Meadows’ little experiment in between more ambitious projects. But it’s that care-free attitude that makes “Donk” such a pleasurable experience.

“Everything that’s happening [in the film] is happening in real time,” Meadows said. “For most of us, it was a documentary. Literally as we headed up to the gig we didn’t know if they’d let us on.”

The film is also surprisingly cohesive considering the let’s-just-see-what-happens mentality that went into the filmmaking, and is very much held together by Considine’s impressive improv skills. We’ve seen versions of his egotistical, hopeless character many times before - particularly in mockumentaries. But Considine gives him a unique spin, refraining from exaggeration and thus giving the character, and the film, a soul. It’s also clear in every frame that everyone involved is having a blast making this up as they go along, and it clearly rubbed off on the enthusiastic Edinburgh audience. 

After the screening, Meadows, and - in character - Considine - got a rousing reception as they came on stage. “Le Donk” said that, in taking the role, he’d “given Shane the benefit of the doubt because he’d made a few blockbusters… Shane’s known for taking strangers and making them into actors. I have a few ideas. I’m here to network.”

The audience played the game right back, from asking who this “Paddy” person is to inquiring about Donk’s ambitions, which apparently include making a film about a “one armed boxer.”

Likely to become a rarity in the recently more serious-minded resumes of both Meadows and Considine (who in particular hasn’t extensively honed his comic skills since his first collaboration with Meadows, 1999’s “A Room For Romeo Brass”), “Le Donk” marked a significant fun spot in the middle of the Edinburgh festival, which continues through this weekend. Though Considine, or “Donk,” rather, suggested on stage that it might not be the end of Donk.

“Without me, there ain’t anything for Shane Meadows to do,” he said. “It’s all me.”