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England & Son

Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh

Five stars 

Waking up in a bin at the back of Wetherspoon’s is something of an occupational hazard for the kid with the unfortunate surname played by Mark Thomas in Ed Edwards’ play. What happens to his mate who joined him on the mother of all benders, however, is even less pleasant.

 

Thomas’ boy, on the other hand, lives to tell the tale, as he is left with one more set of war wounds in a life already scarred by an upbringing marked by violence, loss and a messy descent into drug use. The shadow that hangs over all this is his dad, himself a casualty of war as cannon fodder caught in the crossfire of colonial genocide in Malaya. 

 

Drawing from real life experience, Edwards’ monologue is brought to full brutal life in Cressida Brown’s production. Thomas’ confessionals are pulsed along by MJ McCarthy’s low-key but insistent sound design, and wrapped in occasional swathes of Richard Williamson’s blood red lighting. 

 

Seen earlier this year on the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Brown’s production is 

notable as well for being the first time Thomas has performed a solo show not penned by himself. Despite such disciplines, Thomas can’t resist breaking character occasionally to embrace any unplanned comic moment that lands at his feet and integrate it into the show without missing a beat.

 

This touring version is presented by Home Manchester and Tin Cat Entertainment, and now comes with a twenty-five minute curtain raiser. This sees Thomas riff on material developed with Edwards from writing workshops with prisoners convicted on drug related charges. With gallows humour to the fore, Thomas gives voice to a range of characters who points to how things might have turned out differently.

 

The end result for England Junior, alas, is akin to some picaresque Dickensian getting of wisdom, with all the same social hardships and class division, but with none of the happy endings in a show made for the hardest of times.


The Herald, December 6th 2023

 

ends

 

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