Jake and Ollie have gone underground. Hiding out in Jake’s car, surviving on whatever they can scrounge or steal from nearby supermarkets, it soon becomes apparent that they are running away from a serious crime.
John Pessol and Davy Quinlan make a good duo in this minimalist two hander, the dialogue flowing naturally enough to forge a genuine connection between the two actors. The actual script on the other hand is often puerile and never quite as funny as it thinks it is. The drunken oscillation between moments of intense dark drama and dick jokes was enough to make you dizzy: in trying to be a ‘dark comedy’ Something Beginning With managed neither caper nor tense thriller.
The squeaky clean image of the boys didn’t quite match with the constant swearing in the script. Ollie also came across as far too young firstly to be realistically Internet dating, also to be considering proposing to a girl he met on the Internet. Yet perhaps that added to the sense of youthful naivety and ultimately sense of a life wasted.
There were some entertaining comedic moments, explored mostly in the sequence showing Jake’s irrational fear of bears breaking into the car. The comic timing was great in that instance but occasionally gags were quite laboured and extended on for far longer than necessary.
Excellent chemistry between Pessol and Quinlan meant the play was pacey and adequately beguiling, unfortunately what lost my attention were the Inbetweeners-style gags and patchily uncertain tone suspended between high drama and farce.
