Chasing Bono

Soho Theatre

Reviewed – 11th December 2018

★★★★

“A highly entertaining tale that already feels like classic comedy”

The legendary writing duo Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais who are behind such TV comedy classics as The Likely Lads, Porridge, and, Auf Wiedersehen Pet, are now trying their hand at the stage. Similar to their biggest hit, The Commitments, Chasing Bono is an Irish play with music looking at the ups and downs of being in a band. Taking inspiration from Neil McCormick’s memoirs, I Was Bono’s Doppelgänger, which back in 2011 was turned into the film Killing Bono, Clement and La Frenais manage to keep its heart and hilarity for this new adaption.

McCormick (here played by Niall McNamee) wants to become a musical legend, known by all. So does his good mate Paul (Shane O’Regan). Both decide to start up bands, making these two pals become (friendly) musical rivals. Paul tries poaching Neil’s guitar-playing brother Ivan (Dónal Finn) for his crew, but Neil persuades his younger sibling they’re better off sticking together. The public love a family affair. It doesn’t take long before Paul’s band takes off after changing his name to Bono, and the band’s name to U2, and the rest, you can say, is history. Whilst U2 are playing Wembley Stadium, Neil and Ivan are stuck playing pubs and ‘titty bars’. The McCormick brothers’ musical luck goes from bad to worse as their confidence in reaching stardom begins to wane.

Clement and La Frenais’ sharp, witty, dialogue is the driving force to the production. Some of their one-liners are pure comedy gold, erupting laughter from the audience on numerous occasions. You can tell you’re in the safe hands of comedy writing pros. It feels clean and polished, but sometimes too much so. There is a sense of lacking a final ingredient, possibly in the plot line, which is stopping this from being a brilliant production. What that special little extra is, I can’t quite put my finger on it.

The realistic country cottage kitchen set plays multiple different locations throughout the story, without ever really changing. The highlight is the high-level wooden beams of the cottage giving way to present the recording studio/radio booth/record company office that looms above the stage and audience with ominous arrogance.

The music that’s incorporated into Chasing Bono, performed by McNamee and Finn both on guitar and vocals, are the original compositions by the real McCormick brothers from their various bands such as Yeah!Yeah! and Shook Up! The songs are all fairly mediocre. It’s understandable why they never quite made it in the music biz. Regardless of song quality, the actors do give credible renditions of them.

McNamee embodies both fearlessness and fragility as the protagonist Neil, with the story moving back and forth from the past to present. Denis Conway and Ciarán Dowd as notorious Dublin gangster Danny Machin and his henchman Plugger are quite the Laurel and Hardy double act. O’Regan’s uncanny resemblance to Bono is a sight to see. The small amount of singing that he does proves vocally he isn’t a complete mimic, but this doesn’t detract from his excellent portrayal.

A highly entertaining tale that already feels like classic comedy – nothing ground-breaking, you know what you’re getting, but by God is it enjoyable.

Reviewed by Phoebe Cole

Photography by Helen Maybanks

Chasing Bono

Soho Theatre until 19th January

Last ten shows reviewed at this venue:

Francesco de Carlo: Comfort Zone | ★★★★ | May 2018

Great British Mysteries | ★★★½ | May 2018

Sarah Kendall: One-Seventeen | ★★★★ | May 2018

Flesh & Bone | ★★★★★ | July 2018

There but for the Grace of God (Go I) | ★★★★ | August 2018

Fabric | ★★★★ | September 2018

The Political History of Smack and Crack | ★★★★ | September 2018

Pickle Jar | ★★★★★ | October 2018

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

★★★

“Whilst the performances from both actors are strong, the abrupt shifts in character and setting require serious concentration and perseverance to follow”

A Guide for the Homesick is an ambitious, eighty minute two-hander that attempts to address a range of disparate and difficult themes through scenes of intimate intensity abstractly spliced together.

Set on one night in an Amsterdam hotel room, the decor of Jason Denvir’s set verging on the clinical, two men running from horrors in their recent past have a chance meeting that turns into a revelatory night of confession. Teddy (Clifford Samuel) is mysteriously alone on a stag weekend gone awry and Jeremy (Douglas Booth) is heading home from a stint as an aid worker in Uganda. Both men’s secrets are revealed throughout the course of the night, with each actor doubling up as the other important figure in each other’s lives.

Booth and Samuel gave sterling performances as Jeremy/Ed and Teddy/Nicholas, although each had a certain, more natural, affinity for one of the two roles. Booth’s Jeremy was an earnestly charming, yet self-effacing Harvard grad, appearing lost and confused about his identity and place in the world, whilst Ed’s restriction to a limited phraseology was a barrier to the audiences connection. In contrast, Samuel’s Teddy was reserved and deceptive, whereas Samuel’s alternate part, Nicholas, was warm, tender and instantly likeable.

Among the many threads running through the piece is a reference to the role US evangelical churches have had in the rise of the anti-gay movement in East Africa. Conservative Christians, feeling that they had lost the culture wars in the US, have exported their battle to Uganda where they feel more sure of success. A deeper exploration of the implications of these practices and ties with the aid sector would have made for a more original and and provocative piece – but having to share the stage with a parallel plot meant that neither felt nuanced enough.

Urban’s script necessitates rapid shifts between each thread, sometimes abruptly and without context. As the piece reaches its climax, the actors’ switches between characters rise to such a pace that it becomes jarring to watch, little helped by director Jonathan O’Boyle’s choice to use screeching soundscapes and complementary changes in lighting. Ed’s repetition of a phrase concerning a lonely whale, although symptomatic of his character’s mental instability, is so random and out of place in the piece that it’s almost comic.

Whilst the performances from both actors are strong, the abrupt shifts in character and setting require serious concentration and perseverance to follow. Rather than going into meaningful depth for any of the themes, the play is a menagerie that would have done better with a narrower focus.

Reviewed by Amber Woodward

Photography by Helen Maybanks

Soho Theatre

Reviewed – 11th December 2018

★★★★

“A highly entertaining tale that already feels like classic comedy”

A highly entertaining tale that already feels like classic comedy – nothing ground-breaking, you know what you’re getting, but by God is it enjoyable.

Reviewed by Phoebe Cole

Photography by Helen Maybanks

Chasing Bono

Soho Theatre until 19th January

Last ten shows reviewed at this venue:

A Guide for the Homesick

Trafalgar Studios

Reviewed – 19th October 2018

★★★

“Whilst the performances from both actors are strong, the abrupt shifts in character and setting require serious concentration and perseverance to follow”

A Guide for the Homesick is an ambitious, eighty minute two-hander that attempts to address a range of disparate and difficult themes through scenes of intimate intensity abstractly spliced together.

Whilst the performances from both actors are strong, the abrupt shifts in character and setting require serious concentration and perseverance to follow. Rather than going into meaningful depth for any of the themes, the play is a menagerie that would have done better with a narrower focus.

Reviewed by Amber Woodward

Photography by Helen Maybanks

A Guide for the Homesick

Trafalgar Studios until 24th November

Previously reviewed at this venue: