Featured Post

Prayers and thoughts: The Inseparables @Finboroughtheatre

Image
The Inseparables brings Simone de Beauvoir’s posthumously published novel to life. It traces a lifelong friendship between Sylve and Andrée, two unconventional girls who grew up in a stifling world where being a woman meant getting married or entering a convent. With a quick pace and engaging performances from the two leads, it is a journey back into the 20th century that captures two unconventional women trapped in a conventional world that will have you reflecting on how much or little things have moved on in the last century. It’s currently playing at the Finborough Theatre .  We’re introduced to Sylve praying for her country, France, to be saved from the war and indoctrinated into the world of faith and obedience. But too smart for all that, her life was full of detached guilt and boredom. But when she meets Andrée, a new arrival at her school, she is struck by how different she is from everyone else. She was burned in a fire and had a passion for life that nobody else she knew...

Tight spots: Lardo @ORLTheatre

It is not often you get to go to the theatre and get an eyeful of spit, blood and tight-fitting Lycra. But this is the case in Lardo, now playing at The Old Red Lion theatre. It’s a descent into the subculture of Scottish wrestling, its characters and violence.

It is also an immersive experience. Entering the Old Red Lion theatre is like entering into the world of insane wrestling. The performance space is a wrestling ring, the Scottish flag and walls smeared with muck and graffiti.  

There are real stunts and some pretty nifty moves. Audience participation is a given. You will find yourself shouting and booing (whether you really wanted to or not). And even when the play feels like it is losing momentum there is always the next wrestling match that will save it. 



Lardo is a chubby, wrestling obsessed, minor social media celebrity in Glasgow. He seems a bit of a loser but desperate to become a wrestler in Tartan Wrestling Madness. You could be forgiven for thinking that with the exception of the ill-fitting tights and the subject matter there isn’t much different to the world of theatre bloggers. But thanks to the magic of theatre he becomes an overnight sensation with his comic antics and his silly moves. But it comes at a price, he loses his girlfriend and finds himself trapped in a world where the expectation is to top each dangerous stunt with an even more dangerous one.

There are some terrific performances here and a wonderful set of characters that keep this piece alive, balancing the physical demands of the roles with a surprising amount of emotional resonance. Daniel Buckley as Lardo brings a sense of charm and vulnerability to his character that makes him quite appealing, making the most of what life (sometimes literally) shows at him. 


Zoe Hunter as Whiplash Mary has a wonderful scene waiting for Lardo to wake up. After Lardo’s first fight he becomes a sensation and Whiplash Mary takes him home. While waiting for him to wake up she describes her double life to the audience; working in a menial job, looking after her young boy and wrestling in the evening. It used to make her feel alive but time and injuries have taken their toll. The sense of disappointment and jadedness is palpable. 


The rest of the cast can be admired for their physicality of their performance, including Stuart Ryan as the Wee Man who gets beaten up and blinded and Nick Karimi as the edgy wrestling promoter Stairs. 


Writer Mike Stone for his first full length play has decided to bring the subculture of Scottish wrestling to the London theatre fringe and we are probably all better off for it. This world has already been explored in a number of documentaries (with an equally compelling real-life character Grado) and deserves a theatrical treatment. The dialogue is fired up with some great jokes and observations. However for such an unconventional slice of life, this treatment seems a little too conventional at times with an unnecessary health and safety subplot and the usual father-son cliches. 


If the piece could focus on the characters, turn up the music and cut the interval this would be a knockout. In the meantime it is warming up, but not yet the main event it could be. But you will still want to shout, "Go Lardo!" anyway. See it through to the end of March. 

⭐︎⭐︎⭐︎



Photo credit: Gus Miller


Popular posts from this blog

Opera and full frontal nudity: Rigoletto

Fantasies: Afterglow @Swkplay

Play ball: Damn Yankees @LandorTheatre