Four Weddings and a Breakdown – King’s Arms, Salford

Phil Green’s pre-Edinburgh stand up show, presented to a small audience who had made their way through the torrential rain of a humid summers evening, took us on a journey of his life over the past twenty years and the trials and torments that have brought him to where he is now. Relaxed, quick witted and very likeable, Green quickly got down to the business of pondering the life experiences and learnings of each generation from the Babyboomers who raised him to the current Generation Z cleverly highlighting the differences and similarities between them.

Using the power of his beloved and adored Sugababes, who have accompanied him for the whole journey and assisted by observant and entertaining photographs, visual charts and graphs, Green highlights the features of each generation with playful irony and risible truths and hilariously disturbing projections of what the future could hold. The irony of his prediction that The Flood is coming was not lost on this intimate crowd as the thunderstorm outside literally came through the roof to the rapidly garnered buckets below.

His sharp observations, honest and open style and his empathy towards each generation allowed the audience to trust his thoughts and perceptions. Set within the framework of four very different weddings he had attended over recent years, Green uses these experiences to pinpoint the key factors of each unique generation and to lead us carefully to the point at which life fell apart for him and a breakdown followed. Never self indulgent or self pitying, Green genuinely shares the things he has learnt about his own mental health and the dos and don’ts of facing his problems and dealing with the responses and reactions of those around him. His theories on Iron Man participants were especially entertaining; viewpoints of stag do’s, conspiracy theorists, the possession of property, inter- generational respect in different cultures, why The Sugababes are the thinking man’s Little Mix, all generated much mirth and laughter and I was glad we had made the soggy journey to Salford’s gem of a pub theatre.

Phil Green plays the Edinburgh Fringe @ Banshee Labyrinth (Venue 156) August 5th – 15th and 17th – 27th https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/phil-green-four-weddings-and-a-breakdown

Reviewer: Lou Kershaw

Reviewed: 8th July 2023

North West End UK Rating: