You’d be forgiven for raising an eyebrow at the provocative title Olives and Blowjobs at Space Triplex. Unforgivable, however, would be to miss it. Ollie Maddigan’s 70-minute tour de force of ecstasy, emotion and grief, refracted through a kaleidoscopic teenage mind, is quickly becoming a Fringe highlight - and deservedly so!
Tour de force of ecstasy, emotion and grief
Taking its cue from the likes of Fleabag, the one-man confessional style is challenging for the best of performers. The play revolves around a 15-year-old coming to terms with his mother’s death, his father’s neglect and struggles with unemployment, drugs, alcohol, therapy and consent. How to square this, then, with the howling laughter that fills the theatre when Ollie begins to speak and move? Clad in a crumpled school uniform, there is something casual about Ollie’s acting style that puts an audience at ease to discuss even the most intense of subjects. And perhaps most importantly, Ollie appears to truly enjoy himself on stage, so we laugh alongside his teenage overreactions, caricatures of highschool friends and imitations of the unintelligible - but iconic - adolescent grunt.
As his cocky defensiveness burns itself out, however, Ollie’s monologue reaches its visceral climax, and it is moving to see male emotion struggle within a cage of stoicism and self-doubt. Ollie is at his best when he holds back his most intense outbursts for just the right moment, resisting the urge to thrash and rage until words can no longer do justice to his
feelings. PTSD? Our protagonist apologises: “Sorry guys… silly thoughts.”
Ollie’s knack for witty yet authentic writing is coupled with excellent staging that serves the story without distracting. Flashes of light book-end the play’s ebbs and flows for a rhythmical, finely-tuned pacing. Footage from Ollie’s family recordings play as he himself sits with us and watches them back, making for a hard-hitting reminder of the play’s basis in reality. Audience clustered around a young man with a very minimal set - a projector, a chair, and a water bottle occasionally doubling as a microphone - Olives and Blowjobs is a reminder of how few frills are needed when a true talent commands the stage.
Olives and Blowjobs, is perhaps not helped much by the title, but as a tightly-packed exploration of the paradoxes and pulsations of growing up, it is difficult to overestimate. And the flow of tears from many who witnessed it speaks for itself.
