Romantic wrestlemania
Chris (Rosa Caines) and Josh (Dom Luck) both live in Nevada but met online. She’s an out-of-work plumber, he’s a data analyst for a tech company but spends his spare time working for a charity which collects data about the impact on the ground of American drone strikes in the Middle East.
As they get to know each other, he admits he’s keeping the charity afloat by betting on the dark web on where the bombs will fall. And Chris sees an opportunity to serve her own agenda, to help her mother (Nina Cavaliero) who has fallen through the safety net of Obamacare and needs money for essential surgery.
Ethical conundrums abound in Rory Horne’s play, ably staged by Argonaut Theatre, recent graduates of the University of East Anglia. It’s not perfect: we need to see more of the fledgling relationship between Chris and Josh before the bigger issues take over, and it doesn’t seem to be quite clear how it should end, but it’s a promising piece of work with things to say about alienation, systems that let people down, and the way we do war in the 21st century.
A Charlie Montague Mystery: The Man With the Twisted Hip
thespace @ Surgeons Hall (Venue 53) Easily-pleased fans of fake corpsing, weak Wodehouse/ Christie parodies and contrived fourth-wall-breaking will love this Byzantine comic play from writer/performer Tom Taylor. He plays the titular amateur sleuth, a silly-ass Terry-thomas type, plus an array of supporting characters. It’s harmless fare, assuredly performed, but fatally nestled in that snug Radio 4 armchair of bland comedy nothingness.
Dance can move you in many ways, often to tears – but rarely is that through laughter. Well Alfonso Barón and Luciano Rosso are here to change all that, with this joyous, funny and skilful hour of comedic dance.
Based in Argentina, Un Poyo Rojo was founded in 2008 as a variety act, and steadily grew into a full show. Set in a locker room, where two wrestlers are preparing for their fight, the action moves from contemporary dance to physical theatre, to commercial street dance and back again.
At first, it’s a game of oneupmanship – who can do the best moves, display the most strength in their tiny shorts and vests – but it’s a level competition. Both men are technically strong dancers; whether they’re being graceful, jazzy or mock aggressive, it’s all done with style.
And then the relationship between Barón and Rosso starts to become key, as we realise that one is clearly sweet on the other, but it’s painfully unreciprocated.
Placing a cigarette provocatively into his mouth, Rosso attempts to flirt with Barón. But when it comes to no good, he slides in another cigarette, and another, in a display of physical comedy that has the audience in stitches.
To begin with, everything is performed in silence, but when Barón switches on the radio, we find out just how talented these men are. As he dials through the channels, we hear bursts of music interspersed with spoken word and I had (wrongly) assumed this was all prerecorded, so perfectly do they respond to what comes out. But no, the radio is live, which means each night that entire segment of the show is different, but no doubt equally hilarious.