An electrifying new show’s in town, starring the little dude from the “Harry Potter” movies. No, it’s not “The Cripple of Inishmaan” with Daniel Radcliffe, but “Peddling” with Harry Melling — who played Harry’s obnoxious cousin, Dudley Dursley.
Like his former co-star, Melling’s built a legit stage career: He played the Fool to Frank Langella’s “King Lear” in January, and now he’s presenting a solo he wrote for himself.
Melling’s unnamed, bleary-eyed 19-year-old wakes up in a field in his underwear, his back streaked with mud. You can almost taste the hangover. He then recaps the three days that led him there.
Sounds pretty standard, but “Peddling” elevates the material with inventive staging and an explosive performance. Director Steven Atkinson and designer Lily Arnold isolate Melling in a translucent eight-by-eight-by-eight cage. Restlessly, Melling spits out the tale of a kid trying to survive on the London streets by selling “life’s essentials” door to door — toilet paper, toothpaste, light bulbs — to people as wary or broke he is.
Drab as it sounds, “Peddling” is a nonstop jolt. Pacing his cage, Melling works himself into a frenzy, his character increasingly frustrated by the crap hand he’s been dealt. The actor’s sing-songy cadence, close to spoken word, adds a poetic element to the story.
By the time the show comes full circle, the shellshocked audience may be ready to curl up in the mud as well.