SECOND BEST

Riverside Studios

★★★★

“Butterfield navigates the journey with a fearless and faultless performance”

Much has been made in the media recently of Asa Butterfield’s stage debut. In interviews he has said that theatre “has always terrified” him. We get the impression that this is genuine, rather than a false modesty. Having made his name in “The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas” at the age of ten, he went on to play the lead in Martin Scorsese’s “Hugo”, before his major break in the Netflix series, “Sex Education”. Yet he is sufficiently aware that standing in front of a live audience is a completely different ballgame. Especially when you are the only one on stage for the whole hour and a half. Any fears we (or Butterfield for that matter) may have had about this inaugural performance are instantly driven away. “Second Best” is a wonderfully stylised, one-man, one-act play by Barney Norris in which Butterfield commands the stage with a natural comfort and ease, and a sparkling charisma that keeps us hanging on his every word.

Adapted from David Foenkinos’ French novel (translated by Megan Jones), it tells the story of Martin – the (fictionalised) boy who lost out to Daniel Radcliffe on being cast as Harry Potter in the film franchise. Although a specific narrative, it is immediately relatable. Who hasn’t wondered what might have happened if things had turned out differently? That ‘different life I once almost had’ as Butterfield’s character states. That is the crux of the piece. Quite a simple premise, but it is wrapped in layers that are peeled away by Butterfield as he paces the stage, making sharp turns through Martin’s backstory in a seemingly haphazard fashion.

As we enter the auditorium, Butterfield is already there. A lone figure in black, strikingly prominent against the stark white backdrop. Fly Davis’ set is initially a puzzle. A damaged corner-shop rack of crisps, a camera tripod, television set, large packing crate, empty picture frames and a hospital bed high up on the wall. Martin sets the scene. We begin in the present, in a hospital waiting for the results of his and his partner’s three-month scan. But Martin’s mind cannot focus on the image of his child-to-be. Instead, it is being dragged back to into his past – a life of things he didn’t do. A sometimes-traumatic journey. Honest and brutal yet funny and sympathetic as Martin pieces himself back together again. Non sequiturs are strategically placed throughout the script, teasing us until their meaning smacks with a startling clarity. Michael Longhurst’s skilful direction makes inspired use of the props and set pieces, and all the while Butterfield navigates the journey with a fearless and faultless performance.

The narrative is, in fact, more about Martin’s relationship with his mother and, particularly, his father. A stepfather casts a dark shadow too. We follow Martin from school, through to his early film auditions. We commute with him from England to France and back after his parents’ divorce. A vertigo inducing scene takes us into hospital where he was briefly sectioned. And eventually to the party where he met the love of his life – and his saviour. All with stroboscopic shifts from the dark to the light. And never before have tuna sandwiches carried such tear-jerking poignancy. As the conclusion approaches, we do get a whiff of self-help therapy. In Martin’s words, it is ‘not the story of how I came second, but the story of how someone put me first’. But in Butterfield’s hands we are spared any trace of sentimentality. What he replaces it with is tenderness.

In real life, Butterfield narrowly missed out on being cast as the new Spiderman in 2015. The part went to Tom Holland. But he is philosophical about it and has no regrets. Had his story played out differently, though, he might not be here on the stage as his fictional counterpart, Martin – which, for us, would be a big regret. “Second Best” shows us that ‘the other’ life might not be as glittering as it looks. There’s plenty to think about, but what doesn’t need much contemplation is that this sharply insightful play is rendered a must see by Asa Butterfield’s bold and brilliant performance.

SECOND BEST

Riverside Studios

Reviewed on 3rd February 20245

by Jonathan Evans

Photography by Hugo Glendinning

Previously reviewed at this venue:

HERE YOU COME AGAIN | ★★★★ | December 2024

DECK THE STALLS | ★★★ | December 2024

THE UNSEEN | ★★★★ | November 2024

FRENCH TOAST | ★★★★ | October 2024

KIM’S CONVENIENCE | ★★★ | September 2024

THE WEYARD SISTERS | ★★ | August 2024

MADWOMEN OF THE WEST | ★★ | August 2024

MOFFIE | ★★★ | June 2024

KING LEAR | ★★★★ | May 2024

THIS IS MEMORIAL DEVICE | ★★★★ | April 2024

ARTIFICIALLY YOURS | ★★★ | April 2024

ALAN TURING – A MUSICAL BIOGRAPHY | ★★ | January 2024

SECOND BEST

★★★★

“Tragedy and farce link arms and are not afraid to share the same lines of dialogue.”

Although Alan Bleasdale wrote the original series of television plays before Margaret Thatcher came to power, it wasn’t first broadcast until 1982 and was consequently seen to be a specific critique of the Thatcher era. His writing, though, had a far more wide-ranging effect that guaranteed the success of the stories. The nostalgic and gritty realism still holds power nearly half a century later, as evidenced by James Graham’s stirring adaptation for the stage, currently on a nationwide tour.

The early nineteen-eighties were different things for different people. At one end of the scale there were the rich and ambitious, riding on progress and the jetstream of new money. But while Harry Enfield parodied this selfishness of the yuppie culture (we all remember the ‘Loadsamoney’ character?), Bleasdale was focusing on the underside; the high unemployment and collapse of the primary industries. “Boys form the Blackstuff” follows five working class men trying to keep afloat amid this recession, not helped by the suspicious and bullying hand of the Department of Employment.

Amy Jane Cook’s brutalist and severe set evokes the Liverpool docklands with its iron frameworks which close in on the more intimate scenes, lending an air of claustrophobia to the domestic bickering that runs parallel to the collective fight for survival that these characters are up against. Kate Wasserberg’s stylish direction weaves the short scenes together into a series of choreographed vignettes that flow, then clash like freshwater rapids coming up against the murkiness and remorselessness of the Mersey.

We get to know the principal characters early on (if we don’t know them already). Chrissie, Loggo, Yosser, George, Dixie and Snowy. Even if you are unfamiliar with the original, and once you’ve acclimatised to the authentic Liverpudlian accent, their stories are easy to follow. The performances of each cast member are strikingly individual and recognisable. Obviously, Jay Johnson’s ‘Yosser’ stands out from the crowd with his peppered catchphrases (‘gizza job’ and ‘I could do that’) and jittery, unpredictable energy. We realise that this could be a play about mental health – a sudden understanding that whisks the narrative into the present day but without the unease of having to tread carefully through contemporary fragility. Words of wisdom, particularly from Ged McKenna’s wonderfully uneducated yet perfectly erudite ‘George’, are never lost in the humour. We laugh through this show just as much as we gasp at the personal hardships endured.

The pace picks up in the second act, even as the scenes get longer and more introspective. The humour and pathos join forces in monologue. Tragedy and farce link arms and are not afraid to share the same lines of dialogue. A funeral scene, as poignant as they come, bleeds brilliantly into the comedy of a dole queue. An anguished wife (a superb Sian Polhill-Thomas) wondering how to feed her children is, in the next scene, an acerbically grim clerk at the jobcentre. But under the lights, each character casts shadow of hope. Even if the shades aren’t subtle, it is the contrast of light and dark that bring this show alive.

We might not have admitted this in the eighties, but these ‘boys’ feel emasculated, fragile and desperate for hope. The writing is sensitive beyond its years, and in Graham’s revival we can carouse in the period without having to make excuses for it. Despite being geographically and culturally specific, it is universal. And despite being rooted in a particular decade, it is timeless. The stories of ordinary people, told in an extraordinary production.

SECOND BEST

Riverside Studios

★★★★

“Butterfield navigates the journey with a fearless and faultless performance”

SECOND BEST

Riverside Studios

Reviewed on 3rd February 20245

by Jonathan Evans

Photography by Hugo Glendinning

Previously reviewed at this venue:

SECOND BEST

SECOND BEST

SECOND BEST

BOYS FROM THE BLACKSTUFF

Theatre Royal Windsor

★★★★

“Tragedy and farce link arms and are not afraid to share the same lines of dialogue.”

BOYS FROM THE BLACKSTUFF

Theatre Royal Windsor then UK Tour continues

Reviewed on 29th January 2025

by Jonathan Evans

Photography by Alistair Muir

Previously reviewed at this venue:

BOYS FROM THE BLACKSTUFF

BOYS FROM THE BLACKSTUFF

BOYS FROM THE BLACKSTUFF