Plumber Denny (Doug Allen) takes on young lads to try and help them out and his current project is Elvis (Toby Alexander), who seems like a nice lad but is a bit useless. Elvis spends most of his time with his 14 year old mate Ally (Josef Altin), whose Mum has gone to Spain and whse Dad beats him relentlessly. Ally's escape is to live on the streets, steal to make money, do E and drink, but his dream is to have enough cash to make it to his Mum's. Cooper (Paul Moriarty) knew Denny's Dad and is always trying to embroil him in his get rich quick schemes, he's a bit of a chancer, doing alright but thinking he's the local success story. Both Ally and Cooper are after the money, neither really has a clue how to get it but the schemes come thick and fast; for Cooper its 'Pos and Becks' night at the pub, for Ally selling stolen stuffed birds. As things go wrong, the two lads decide to top themselves, not with any great anger but just because it seems a step up from where they are.
The acting was generally of a very high standard with Josef's performance being particularly striking and at times even disturbing. Toby was immensly credible and beautifully controlled whilst Paul was just so damned believable. When the audience are that close to you physically it takes real skill to maintain full-on characterisation - no problems there with this cast.
Paul Miller and his design team are to be congratualted on making a space that, on the face of it is a bit of a nightmare, work so well for the play. Though all the staging is crammed into a tight area we are never at a loss as to where we actually are even when the scenes virtually overlap in an almost "made for TV" way.
In all, an excellent evening's theatre.
Robert
p.s. if you get the chance, take the Bush meal deal at the local Bush Bar and Grill. Super food and a free glass of wine for £12.50. We were impressed.
