Starting with the iconic moment when David Bowie came on Top of the Pops performing Ziggy Stardust, Heroes is a coming of age story of three friends trying to see David Bowie in concert. Using The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars as a soundtrack, the play captures the energy and hope that Bowie’s music gave to all the outcasts.
Though the play is good, there is a lack of awareness of the audience’s eye line.
Heroes follows teenagers Billie, Joe, and Tinhead as they escape from their lives in Tunbridge Wells to catch a glimpse of their hero David Bowie in concert. They travel to London and meet another group of Bowie fans: Pinkie, David, Karen and Pete, who live in a squat. The artistic squatters conveniently allow the teenagers to stay with them. Each character was well written, with their own characterisations and at no point did it feel like a character was written just to serve the plot. One problem with the story occurred right at the end where the audience was left wondering what happened to a character offstage.
All the actors in the show are excellent. Again, all very different. Bebe Barry as the tough Billie brought a beautiful vulnerability, Greg Birks as Tinhead gives off a lovely febrile energy, and Mica as Pinkie is absolutely charming. With great chemistry between the three leads, that didn't fall into the sexual tension trope, Barry, Birks and Henry Lewis, who plays Joe, are endearing and complemented each other brilliantly.
Though the play is good, there is a lack of awareness of the audience’s eye line. Any time the characters were seated, the view of them was obscured for anyone not in the first two rows of the audience. This could have been rectified with different props or by raising the stage. Heroes is an entertaining show with a fantastic cast of actors. Too bad you are unable to see them all the time they are on stage.
