Dick

As Dick opens, we’re thrown headfirst into a group of friends, all in their mid 20’s. We’re in a nightclub where Noah (Joseph Lynch) is, somewhat reluctantly, celebrating his 26th birthday with a group of lifelong friends.

This non-milestone year seems to have made an impact on all of the friends, each turning 26 at some point in the year and the fun of the club rapidly descends into an oddly serious and introspective set of conversations that seem wildly out of context.

Noah is reflecting on sexuality, deflecting his own voyeuristic tendencies, by quizzing his friends on theirs. This would be fine, except his tone is somewhat overbearing and mildly sinister. His attempts to get his friends to declare their sexual proclivities whilst hiding his own feel like a bullying power-play.

As the play progresses, we’re given glimpses into the friends' lives and specifically their relationships with one another. There’s a fair amount of hidden emotion that simmers close to the edge but never really surfaces. The friendship group feels like one out of circumstance (all the same age and from the same place) rather than emotion, and as the play continues, the relationships and their own feelings are pushed to various limits, until they’re left to reflect on themselves and what they want from each other.

From the opening, Writer-Director Adam Kinneen has a lot to say, but why he’s saying it in this particular framework is never clear. There’s some great dialogue in Dick, but it lacks one vital ingredient - a story we can engage with. Without a story we can latch onto, and characters we can care about, this feels like little more than a series of essays on sexuality, grief, and friendship.

The characters - though well performed, particularly Andi Bickers as the compelling asexual Bailey - feel like mouthpieces for philosophical musings rather than fully realised people. Their dialogue, often dense and academic, jars with their supposed youth, making them sound like middle aged scholars rather than the 20-somethings they actually are.

The play’s biggest flaw is its lack of momentum. Without a clear narrative arc, Dick drifts from one weighty conversation to another, leaving the audience grasping for emotional stakes.

Kinneen clearly has something to say, but his ideas remain frustratingly abstract, never grounding themselves in a story we can truly invest in. There’s potential here - strong performances, intelligent writing, and a willingness to tackle big themes - but Dick ultimately feels like a series of loosely connected monologues than a cohesive drama. With tighter structure and a more engaging through-line, this could have been a striking debut. As it stands, it’s an intriguing but unfulfilling experience

Sonny Waheed