Tron Theatre, Glasgow
4 stars Heroes and villains mean everything when you’re a teenager, especially one who’s living in a world of his own like Sam. Sam used to be invisible, but once his mum and dad prove to be thoroughly mortal in a car crash, he loses those powers, and starts to be noticed. Even so, as Sam tells the audience his not so secret origin from the off he has a destiny to fulfil. Or so it seems in Johnny McKnight’s fantastical rites of passage strip-cartoon adventure, in which Sam, his side-kick best pal Walrus, and maybe, just maybe his very own super girl Violet take on the world. In Sam’s head, this comes in the shape of evil genius Uncle Herbie and Violet’s bullying boyfriend. The power of the imagination can only take a small-town school-boy so far, it seems, no matter how high Sam is aiming. McKnight’s own production for Random Accomplice takes an array of comic book idioms and brings them to life via a set of meticulously timed animations which are projected behind the action, illustrating it as Sam tells his doomed tale. Such quick-fire displays by animator Jamie Macdonald and video designer Kim Beveridge on Lisa Sangster’s set allows an insight into Sam’s mind that makes total sense of James Mackenzie and Julie Brown flitting between roles in an instant. There’s a potty-mouthed gallows humour in McKnight’s script that lifts things beyond sentiment in a powerfully observed study of adolescent angst. As Sam reaches for the stars, unable to reconcile himself with real life, McKnight has dreamt up an awfully big adventure worth taking the leap for. The Herald, September 24th 2012 ends
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