An actor Jack Treadwell known to his friends as Tread is giving his very last lecture/performance on dramatic method and the art of acting.We are clearly in the the hands of a very skilled performer, though he perhaps spends too long preparing us for what is to happen before getting into the meat of the show. And the repeated use of not-very-gripping phone interruptions is not necessarily the best idea.But, those cavils aside, there is much to recommend in this show. There is much play with the fourth wall, with the business of dying on stage and also with the matter of celebrity and the cult thereof. The decadence of today that us old men have always seen around us. He has worked in a therapeutic capacity for actors, and talks of the soap star who needed five years in therapy before she could be a naked actor again. (See the show for a definition of this!)The Freudian couch is almost the only prop apart from the screen, on which we see sights such as Bush and Blair buddying. This gets a laugh. (Think what these guys did to the world and all we want to do is laugh). Tread talks of his guilt because he was hired to coach Blair. When? How? Go see.We also see celebrity shrines of various sorts. I loved the one dedicated to nail clippings from the index finger of Sir Alan Sugars right hand. (Sorry to reveal that but it deserves a wider audience!)Relax, enjoy and be stimulated.
