When Len (Josh Phillips) turns up at the door of his mate Chris (Barnaby St. Giles) dressed in full ‘Elvis in Las Vegas circa 1974’ mode and demanding £35 (£40 if you want the voice), we know this isn’t going to be a quiet night in. Chris is in the throes of a split from his girlfriend Anya (Edith Gray) and doesn’t really need Len’s brand of hearty, macho ‘told you so’ friendship, preferring to wallow in a fantasy world justifying the reasons why he and Anya split to himself in increasingly lurid fashion.
Writer and Director Dillon Dawson has devised a three handler that seeks to explore the culture of both male friendship and answer the perennial question ‘What is a Real Man?’
Ostensibly Len is a boorish lout, forcing Chris to drink whisky and play daft drinking games, only as the piece progresses do we see a different persona emerge with the conversation around his Elvis costume as “all an act’ doubling to expose his own softer feelings towards his best friend.
Anya appears in Chris’s thoughts as a sexually confident and voracious young woman, attracted to a more virile and alpha male, his own insecurities manifesting in this fictionalised version of her character. Only at the conclusion, and too briefly, do we glimpse the real Anya, a normal average girl, and realise that Chris is trying to live up to an unrealisable aspiration – Sean Connery mixed with Winston Churchill – rather than being true to his own character.
Aspects of the show are underwritten, more focus should have been placed on delineating the different versions of masculinity displayed by Len and Chris from the outset, which would lead to a stronger conclusion. Similarly, a clearer closure is required in the relationship of Anya and Chris to give the plot structural integrity, it meanders to an unclear ending at present. There are genuinely funny moments in the performances of all three actors but given the short form that a Fringe show demands, I would have wanted more exposition and explanation present to allow them fuller development of their respective characters.
From the perspective of a man in his 50’s, it is interesting to observe the insecurities of men of a different and younger generation, the same lack of confidence that suffused our lives 35 years ago seemingly still present in male attitudes to friendship, relationships and love, plus ca change.
Verdict: An insight into friendship, relationships and what it means to be a man in modern society.
Playing at Edinburgh Festival Fringe at theSpace @ Symposium Hall from 2 to 13 August (not 11th) at 20:15. Tickets available at https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on#q=%22Lonesome%20Tonight%22
Reviewer: Paul Wilcox
Reviewer: 27th July 2024
North West End UK Rating: