THE DOUBLE ACT

Arcola Theatre

★★★★★

“It truly is a masterful example of dark comedy”

The Double Act is an incredibly witty and fiercely topical dark comedy by Mark Jagasia. It follows Billy Bash as he visits his estranged ex-comedy partner while on tour, discovering he’s now a reclusive madman obsessed with their past. As he appears to wear the title of Britain’s Third Most Offensive Comedian like a reclaimed badge of honour, he fails to recognise the descent of his comedy career. Can Cliff convince him to let him out the dark, and join forces to resurrect their old act? With darker forces from their past at play, that is doubtful.

From the very start The Double Act keeps the audience on their toes asking questions about the next mystery. Beginning with Billy (Nigel Betts) and Gulliver’s (Edward Hogg) search for Cliff (Nigel Cooke) in Cliff’s own flat. Gulliver is Cliff’s lodger, who appears to be deeply affectionate and attentive of Cliff, keen to get him back on stage. Yet after finding Cliff – and questioning whether his pet python is real or not – Gulliver’s true identity and motivations is another mystery the audience is esteemed to investigate. Jagasia succeeds in holding such intrigue and managing to keep everyone laughing with joke after joke that hit on almost every other line. It truly is a masterful example of dark comedy. The themes of forgiveness, guilt, value of laughter and retribution are constant throughout. Billy represents the ‘you can’t say anything nowadays, and yet I’m saying it with no consequence’ comedy brigade, where Cliff represents an almost Christmas future-like ghost of him. And unknowingly to the pair of them, Gulliver is their ultimate critic. The question of Billy’s morals within his comedy style is always alive, in a way constantly brought up by himself as he is persistently on the defence. As Cliff questions “What if some laughs are bad?”, the play takes a controversial and heated debate and transforms it into a meaningful and thoughtful conversation about the value of comedy.

The cast are undoubtedly incredible. Nigel Betts plays Billy with a stern focus, never dropping his proud successful straight man ego. His physicality also of his repeatedly breaking back made me wince. Nigel Cooke as Cliff was adorably child-like, in spite of his insanity driven creepiness. He excels in his physical comedy, as does Edward Hogg as Gulliver, both sharing hilarious moments of movement on stage. Praise here is pointed towards Movement Director Sian Williams. Oscar Pearce’s direction keeps the action constantly moving, assisting the play’s tendency of keeping the audience in anticipation. Overall making the very intimate space, with a wonderfully rundown naturalistic living room design of the set (Sarah Beaton), feel larger than life from the stalls. This is complimented by the subtleties of the sound design (Dan Balfour), which goes from silence to creepy horror music when driving the tension, alongside the occasional spooky snake sound effect.

Overall, The Double Act is a hilarious and exciting show that successfully brings life to comedy ghosts of the past. A masterpiece of dark comedy drama.

THE DOUBLE ACT

Arcola Theatre

Reviewed on 27th January 2025

by Rachel Isobel Heritage

Photography by Alex Brenner

Previously reviewed at this venue:

TARANTULA | ★★★★ | January 2025

HOLD ON TO YOUR BUTTS | ★★★★ | December 2024

DISTANT MEMORIES OF THE NEAR FUTURE | ★★★ | November 2024

THE BAND BACK TOGETHER | ★★★★ | September 2024

MR PUNCH AT THE OPERA | ★★★ | August 2024

FABULOUS CREATURES | ★★★ | May 2024

THE BOOK OF GRACE | ★★★★★ | May 2024

LIFE WITH OSCAR | ★★★ | April 2024

WHEN YOU PASS OVER MY TOMB | ★★★★★ | February 2024

SPUTNIK SWEETHEART | ★★★ | October 2023

GENTLEMEN | ★★★★ | October 2023

THE BRIEF LIFE & MYSTERIOUS DEATH OF BORIS III, KING OF BULGARIA | ★★★★★ | September 2023

THE DOUBLE ACT

★★★★

“Ola Ince’s direction has facilitated exceptional performances from all the cast”

It’s difficult to believe Appropriate was written over eight years ago; it seems so precisely pointed at the current ‘post-truth’ culture ushered in by climate change deniers, flat-Earthers, and boggling accusations of fake news that you’d think Branden Jacobs-Jenkins had penned it within the past few months. There’s even a remark about a Supreme Court judge which seems to perfectly tie in with the controversy involving Brett Kavanaugh less than a year ago. It must instead be a testament to the inescapable and unflinching truths that Jacobs-Jenkins’ writing brings centre-stage that the play has so much to reflect on in 2019.

Appropriate focuses around the Lafayettes, a staggeringly dysfunctional family forced to convene to deal with their recently-deceased father’s immensely unkempt plantation house. Comprised of the argumentative and devoted Toni (Monica Dolan), pragmatic yet money-driven Bo (Steven Mackintosh), and fraught recovering addict Franz (Edward Hogg), tensions rise to extreme levels over the ghosts of their pasts, as they are forced to reconcile with the notion that – being a plantation owner – their father may not have been as good a man as they’d initially thought. The insecurities and inherited generational ignorance are exacerbated further by Toni’s reclusive son Rhys (Charles Furness), Franz’s notably younger fiancée River (Tafline Steen), and Bo’s mothering wife Rachael (Jaimi Barbakoff) and teenage daughter Cassie (Isabella Pappas) who’s determined to be treated like an adult. Each character feels like they’ve been perfectly crafted to prod and provoke the others in ways that are a joy to watch.

Ola Ince’s direction has facilitated exceptional performances from all the cast, although Dolan is particularly noteworthy as the ferocious epicentre of most of the play’s conflict, constantly finding new texture and nuance to bring to her numerous embittered tirades, imbuing a sense of vulnerability that is slowly revealed. That’s not to say that Jacobs-Jenkins’ script doesn’t give every character a chance to shine; Furness and Pappas, for example, share a sensitive and poignant scene reflecting on the buzz of the cicadas surrounding the house – a cacophony brought to life by Donato Wharton’s claustrophobic sound design. Other design elements are equally exceptional, such as the Lafayettes’ late father’s hoarding realised brilliantly in the overwhelmingly creaky and creepy set from Fly Davis.

Despite that Appropriate is framed primarily as a family drama, there are also undercurrents of horror – characters feel presences, lightbulbs flicker, and objects move of their own volition when no-one’s in the room. It gave the impression that these two genres were going to collide spectacularly in the play’s climax, but it unfortunately fizzles out in an underwhelming montage. It’s a shame to end on such a forgettable note, because Appropriate is otherwise an urgent wake-up call to how the way we remember the past could be cataclysmic for the future.

Reviewed by Ethan Doyle

Photography by Marc Brenner

THE DOUBLE ACT

Arcola Theatre

★★★★★

“It truly is a masterful example of dark comedy”

THE DOUBLE ACT

Arcola Theatre

Reviewed on 27th January 2025

by Rachel Isobel Heritage

Photography by Alex Brenner

Previously reviewed at this venue:

THE DOUBLE ACT

THE DOUBLE ACT

THE DOUBLE ACT

Donmar Warehouse

Reviewed – 24th August 2019

★★★★

“Ola Ince’s direction has facilitated exceptional performances from all the cast”

Reviewed by Ethan Doyle

Photography by Marc Brenner

Appropriate

Donmar Warehouse until 5th October

Last ten shows covered by this reviewer: