★★★★★

“raw emotion is never far from the surface in this attention grabbing show”

Billed as an exploration of the realities of being gay in an impoverished rural community, ‘Two Come Home’ is a gut-wrenching drama that is a huge credit to its highly talented queer cast and crew.

Previously performed in Brighton, the show has an unmissable four-day run at the King’s Head Theatre, Islington as part of the Camden Fringe Festival. There’s a compelling, raw energy to this piece by Joe Eason which is set on the wrong side of the tracks in small town, deep south America.

The multi-talented Eason also co-stars in his own play and has in addition both designed the show and composed its haunting music. Kirsten Obank-Sharpe’s direction is meticulous, keeping the focus sharp throughout. She is also a member of an on-stage three-piece band, together with Cam Southcott on violin and Elizabeth Cleone Hopland on cello.

Evan’s dad has been jailed for ten years for violent crime. His gay son is clinging to the wreckage of a broken affair that ended a decade earlier. His mum (Nicola Goodchild in a wild performance full of sad energy) is a dysfunctional addict who has never learnt to love him. What happens when Evan’s ex (Ben Maytham) walks back into Evan’s life and will love rekindle in these most desperate of times?

As Philip Larkin famously wrote, ‘they fuck you up, your mum and dad’. Besides the gay love story, there’s an important second narrative here about the failure of familial love. Come what may, raw emotion is never far from the surface in this attention grabbing show. There’s plenty of that strength of feeling in the furiously frustrated language the characters exchange, and there’s wit and poetry too.

Joe Eason’s design is simple and to the point, with some effective lighting adding to the atmosphere generated by the off-key, melancholic score. A highpoint was his voice and guitar rendition of a beautiful song about love lost. The chemistry between the two estranged lovers is electric, helped by intimacy coaching from Marina Cusi Sanchez. James Burton blisters with toxically dangerous energy as Caleb Nicolson.

At the end it’s left to a woman cop (a deft and witty performance by Hannelore Canessa-Wright) to act the Greek chorus and deliver a final message: ‘Just drop the drama! Happiness is a choice’.

I’m not able to report why the playwright chose the American rust bucket setting. This Brokeback vibe has big screen reasonance. The show’s publicity cites its relevance to young audiences. Do similar dramas play out in rural Norfolk or Wales today?

HOW TO START YOUR OWN CULT at The Bill Murray

★★★

“each comedian individually has some very funny moments”

Cults are a rich and potentially comic goldmine, so it was a slight surprise when it became quickly clear that this show has nothing to do with its title.

How to Start Your Own Cult is a series of character monologues performed by three comedians. In a witty voiceover, the audience is welcomed to a seminar: how to start your own cult, and told that we will have to work hard to find the link between the monologues and the seminar itself. This is a comic way of admitting that there is little to no through line between these sketches. It is funny, but leaves the show feeling disjointed and a bit random. Each of the nine monologues is introduced by its tenuous link to the seminar, for example: people in cults have neighbours, here’s a sketch about neighbours. It’s a fun way to attempt to link the pieces, but it falls a bit flat.

This show is a work in progress, and so shouldn’t be judged as a completely finished product. There are some technical glitches, a few forgotten lines and some nervous pauses, but none of that matters. What does matter, is the issue of a lack of cohesion and coherence.

It is crucial to say, each comedian individually has some very funny moments. Ben Goldsmith does a series of sketches about biblical figures, each with an increasingly outlandish accent. My favourite is his vision of the tiger, awaiting her turn on Noah’s arc, getting her nails done. His sketches are funny, slick and work well together. Though they feel a tonally a bit off with the other comics’ work.

Kate Davison re-enacts her character’s gritty, but out of touch documentary about modern Britain. This is a great idea, and the character she has built is a great blend of satire and self-ridicule. There are moments she could turn it up a few more notches, it doesn’t have the confident ridiculousness of Goldsmith’s sketches, but there is definitely a gem of something, and with a bit of polishing it will work really well.

The third comic, Chris East, performs three very different monologues, combining music, audience interaction, and control over silence. He makes quietly waiting for the correct intro music a golden comedy moment. His sketches are not interlinked with one another, though they all demonstrate his taste for amping up a familiar situation into something weirder, and more surreal. They need a bit of tightening up, and there are some pacing issues, but all three have glittering flashes of comic gold.

Each of the sketches is enjoyable, and it is a broadly amusing hour of comedy, especially for a work in progress. The issue is that the show would work better if there was a stronger link between the pieces, or even no attempt at a link at all.

TWO COME HOME at the King’s Head Theatre

★★★★★

“raw emotion is never far from the surface in this attention grabbing show”

TWO COME HOME at the King’s Head Theatre

Reviewed on 15th August 2024

by David Woodward

Photography by J. R. Dawson

Previously reviewed at this venue:

TWO COME HOME

TWO COME HOME

HOW TO START YOUR OWN CULT at The Bill Murray

★★★

“each comedian individually has some very funny moments”

HOW TO START YOUR OWN CULT at The Bill Murray

Reviewed on 26th August 2023

by Auriol Reddaway

More Camden Fringe 2023 Reviews:

How to Start Your Own Cult

How to Start Your Own Cult