Specky Ginger C*nt

Katzpace Studio Theatre

Reviewed – 19th November 2018

★★½

“The shift in tone is jarring, and the decision to alienate the audience from the things that had ingratiated them feels baffling”

If you saw the title for Eoin McKenna’s one-man play and thought ‘blimey, that seems a bit provocative’, you’d be right. Specky Ginger C*nt has very little to do with McKenna being ginger, and much more to do with the abandonment issues that an absent parent can cause. However, it’s difficult to say it’s even really about that in a show that’s nigh-on structureless and tonally disjointed.

The play sees McKenna recount his life and experiences so far to the audience, from growing up living with his mum in Lancashire through to his twenty-third birthday. He covers a myriad of topics, from drugs, to sexuality, to Catholicism, all arguably and tenuously linked to the more central theme of McKenna processing the effect of the absence of his father in his life, but it never really feels like it ties in meaningfully to these other strands. As a result, the script seems to aimlessly wander from event to event without really providing a basis as to why, and consequently lacks any sense of pace as there’s no grasp of a progression or journey.

For the first half of Specky Ginger C*nt, though, this issue didn’t seem prescient as it felt more like stand-up comedy than a play – and actually worked very effectively. McKenna’s sense of humour is sharp, witty, and deliciously dark at times, and the laughs are relentless on a number of occasions. If this style had carried through the whole play, the lack of an arc would have been forgivable, but the second half instead strips away the humour and sees McKenna attempt to come to terms with his father’s absence in more emotionally-charged writing and under icy blue lighting. The shift in tone is jarring, and the decision to alienate the audience from the things that had ingratiated them feels baffling. Moreover, the content of this half feels more amateurish as McKenna repeatedly labours the point of how much he suffers, which diminishes the extent to which the audience can sympathise.

Where the writing is disappointing, however, McKenna takes huge strides to compensate with an outstanding performance. Directed by Pollyanna Newcombe, his comic timing is impeccable in the first half, reeling off snappy deliveries with the perfect blend of light and shade in confidence and vulnerability. In the second half, McKenna lets that vulnerability take centre stage to wring as much pathos as possible out of the lacklustre script; in doing so, nuance disappears and the audience is smothered in just shade.

Reviewed by Tom Francis

Specky Ginger C*nt

Katzpace Studio Theatre

Previously reviewed at this venue:

Gaps | ★★★ | April 2018

What the… Feminist?! | ★★★★ | April 2018

Obsession | ★★★ | June 2018

Let’s Get Lost | ★★★ | July 2018

Serve Cold | ★★ | August 2018

Much Ado About Nothing | ★★★★ | October 2018

Click here to see more of our latest reviews on thespyinthestalls.com