★★★★★

“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.

KING JAMES at Hampstead Theatre

★★★★

“a pitch perfect dissection of male friendship, that tender bond painted in violent strokes”

The saying (almost) goes, of all the unimportant things, sport is the most important.

One reason: sport is the lingua franca of male friendship, all those off-the-shelf metaphors and handy comparisons to fill in for intractable thoughts. Those ups, downs, bruises and heartbreaks. Computers talk in code, men channel life through the fluctuating fortunes of the team they follow.

In King James, we track Matt and Shawn on that journey.

First up, we’re in La Cave du Vin in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, and Shawn is here to do a deal for Matt’s precious tickets for the Cleveland Cavaliers basketball team, the Cavs. This is 2004, the rookie season of local hero LeBron James and, even now, these cagey strangers sense he’s going to be an all-time great.

And he’s theirs.

What the two men don’t know yet is that they’re going to be yoked together serving in the court of King James for the next 12 years (we time-jump to 2010, 2014 and 2016) and their friendship will reflect the comings and goings of the basketball star.

The goings (as LeBron sensationally quits for Miami Heat) are a betrayal and a trauma; the comings (when he returns to end half a century of Cavs failure) are a time of euphoria. Unless you judge a man’s worth not by his impact but by his loyalty.

Loyalty is everything to Matt. He is fragile, hangdog out of choice, riding a mostly luckless life. He has aspirations but they don’t take him far. He’s over reliant on his careless privilege and indulgent parents.

Shawn is sharper round the edges, more purposeful, but that doesn’t mean he is destined to carve out prosperity. Shawn heads to New York and LA to pursue a writing career (mirroring the playwright’s own life). Meanwhile, in between moments of good fortune, Matt tends his parents’ dusty bric-a-brac shop.

Matt is white, and Shawn black, which doesn’t matter much until Matt lets slip what Shawn perceives as a slur.

In this delicate, conventional two-hander, the chemistry is bro-code standard – funny, deluded and nerdy. (LeBron better than Jordan? Discuss.)

The story marks out tiny gradations of disappointment, how life is a study in the futility and necessity of connection. Tension underpins everything – who’s winning, who’s losing. Under Alice Hamilton’s direction, Sam Mitchell (Matt) and Enyi Okoronkwo (Shawn) – both excellent – capture the tone and rhythm of the script with such elan, every exchange feels like a hand-wrapped gift.

Arguing over the origin of the word “fan”:

Matt: No, it’s for “fan” – like electric fan or something.

Shawn: Why would that be the case?

Matt: I dunno! Because we’re cool?

Award-winning playwright Rajiv Joseph is a Cleveland native and this one’s from the heart. His razor-sharp vignettes – slangy and real – are held together with the scar tissue of a veteran sports fan, full of pangs, longing, and the most dreaded thing of all – hope.

King James is a pitch perfect dissection of male friendship, that tender bond painted in violent strokes. Joseph captures these moments in all their delightful and infuriating folly and significance.

You don’t need to know basketball to love King James. You just need to know a man’s essential sorrow.

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

KING JAMES at Hampstead Theatre

★★★★

“a pitch perfect dissection of male friendship, that tender bond painted in violent strokes”

KING JAMES at Hampstead Theatre

Reviewed on 21st November 2024

by Giles Broadbent

Photography by Mark Douet

Previously reviewed at this venue:

KING JAMES

KING JAMES