Productions of Berkoff used to be ten a penny on The Fringe. Young actors and would-be-actors were attracted to his unique blend of violent gutsy language and physical showiness. But performing this stuff is harder than one would think, and Ive spent many an hour in such shows either wishing I had earplugs or whether Berkoff really was the genius hes said to be. Fortunately in this version from a promising bunch of students from London, this wasnt one such occasion.
After a shaky beginning (the lighting seemed to be all over the place and far too dark some of the time), David Rich and Luke Davies are superb as young Mike and Les the East End would-be gangsters but really no-hopers. Berkoffs marrying of Shakespearean dialogue with cockney lingo is very compelling when performed as well as these two. They start us off on a story, which actually doesnt really go anywhere, a bit like the characters themselves, but it doesnt seem to matter. Indeed, one scene, where Les recounts how he sees a beautiful girl but can't speak to her, is in effect just a description of the 38 bus route in London, but is still compelling.
Indeed, the more I see this play the more it doesnt seem to be a play, but a series of brutal, and often very funny, sketches. Because the characters are not very easy to like, we dont really invest in their emotional life. An exception to this is Sylv, played beautifully here by Alice Robertson-Munaac. Her speech about how she wishes she could be a man, and behave as badly as men is both scary and moving at the same time.
The direction is patchy, some of it very inventive (the motorbike scene particularly) but some random, and as I say, underlit. This is also a very difficult space, with no proper entrances and exits, which meant the scene changes, which were pretty minimal, were too long. Indeed, I saw one of the performers trip and fall as he went off is it safe back there? It would have been possible to stage the thing simpler. One of the funniest scenes, when the Mum character asks the Dad character if hes fucking her lost impact because of the elaborate set up for such a short scene. It should be staged in a blackout.
That said, there are worse ways to spend an hour at the Fringe this year (I know, Ive spent them) and this talented group do justice to Berkoffs staggeringly original text. He is, indeed, the genius hes said to be.
