By the Way

Two friends embark upon a road trip through France, their surreal journey accompanied by an over-zealous and unconventional Sat Nav commentary, voiced by the marvellously monotonous Cassie Werber, who also directs ChoppedLogic’s By The Way.

This delightful and understated show, performed by the charismatic Stavros Demetraki and versatile Kevin O’Loughlin, has a fascination with death and the pair encounter it frequently throughout their tour de France. The show just about escapes morbidity thanks to the wit of Renaude’s script and the warm tenderness of Werber’s actors.

Both friends have lost their mothers, one quite recently and the other when he was a child. Along the way they meet a colourful array of characters; an eccentric and slightly sinister hotelier, a baroness who tries to sell them her daughter’s ‘services’, a pair of motorcycling and overly affectionate lovers and a little boy on his way to stay with his mother’s brother. All of these have one thing in common – that they have each recently lost a mother, father, husband or wife. Either that, or they are about to do so.

Our intrepid explorers question where the various bodies of each of these mothers and fathers and husbands and wives are laid to rest, and also where their souls or spirits (or other ethereal presence) must end up. Are they just ‘chatting in the clouds’ or ‘watching over us without us knowing’?

It’s an intelligent script, but one that perhaps gets slightly caught up with the secondary characters, the ones that the two friends meet along their way. I would have preferred to see and hear more about the friendship of our two road trippers and the losses they have experienced. As it stands, their journey feels just a touch incomplete.

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The Blurb

Pleasance Courtyard. 30th July -25th August (not 12th, 19th). 14:05 (1h)

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