Tron Theatre, Glasgow
4 stars
It's all happening down at The Boar's Head, the small-town dive which
local DJ Gary calls his local and where things might just be changing
forever beyond the mannequins throwing shapes behind frosted glass.
Disco is dead and karaoke is the new king, leaving this every-chav
refugee from Goldie Lookin' Chain firmly out in the cold, with only his
dream girl to chase. Would-be crooner Matthew D Melody, meanwhile, only
has eyes for someone equally special, if only he could make her fall
for him the way he obsesses over her. As for Russell Markham, even home
comforts and domestic bliss can't contain the overwhelming sense of
guilt and frustration he feels about how he got so stuck.
As these three damaged young men's worlds ever so obliquely collide, a
far bigger portrait appears concerning what when Gary Owen's play first
appeared in 20091 was dubbed the crisis of masculinity. Over three
monologues that only eventually link up, Owen lets us peek into a
low-rent world where dreams of leaving are thwarted at every wrong turn
in what at first looks like some Alfie-esque rake's progress for the
X-Factor generation, where everybody's a deluded legend. Yet, as things
move beyond the wisecracks to expose very different kinds of
performance anxiety in these off-key lives, Gary's prophecy in the
play's opening moments sees events morph into some kind of mini
Jacobean revenge tragedy.
The back-alley baroque of Owen's Welsh-accented script is blessed with
a trio of fantastically sustained performances from Colin Little,
Martin McCormick and Kristian Phillips in Leann O'Kasi's confidently
sustained production that is unashamedly deep as well as macho.
The Herald, May 26th 2011
ends
4 stars
It's all happening down at The Boar's Head, the small-town dive which
local DJ Gary calls his local and where things might just be changing
forever beyond the mannequins throwing shapes behind frosted glass.
Disco is dead and karaoke is the new king, leaving this every-chav
refugee from Goldie Lookin' Chain firmly out in the cold, with only his
dream girl to chase. Would-be crooner Matthew D Melody, meanwhile, only
has eyes for someone equally special, if only he could make her fall
for him the way he obsesses over her. As for Russell Markham, even home
comforts and domestic bliss can't contain the overwhelming sense of
guilt and frustration he feels about how he got so stuck.
As these three damaged young men's worlds ever so obliquely collide, a
far bigger portrait appears concerning what when Gary Owen's play first
appeared in 20091 was dubbed the crisis of masculinity. Over three
monologues that only eventually link up, Owen lets us peek into a
low-rent world where dreams of leaving are thwarted at every wrong turn
in what at first looks like some Alfie-esque rake's progress for the
X-Factor generation, where everybody's a deluded legend. Yet, as things
move beyond the wisecracks to expose very different kinds of
performance anxiety in these off-key lives, Gary's prophecy in the
play's opening moments sees events morph into some kind of mini
Jacobean revenge tragedy.
The back-alley baroque of Owen's Welsh-accented script is blessed with
a trio of fantastically sustained performances from Colin Little,
Martin McCormick and Kristian Phillips in Leann O'Kasi's confidently
sustained production that is unashamedly deep as well as macho.
The Herald, May 26th 2011
ends
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