SPOILER ALERT – the main character in this funny and profoundly moving monologue dies.
Most of us when we shuffle off this mortal coil can expect a short eulogy, and possibly some curled up sandwiches at the wake, but not Tom who got a full fiery Viking Funeral thanks to his two best friends.
One of them was James Rowland who in a one-hour monologue took the audience through an intense childhood friendship with Tom and his neighbour Sarah. They became a close knit team as their childhood games revolved around the classic 1958 Norse melodrama, The Vikings, starring Kirk Douglas and Tony Curtis as they acted out different roles from the movie.
They agreed to a pact where when one of them snuffed it they would each get a Viking funeral where they floated away on a fiery longboat, which unfortunately for Rowland happened much sooner than anticipated as Tom died young of a rare cancer. Rowland offered a darkly humorous account of a spot of body snatching and a nicking a boat before sending Tom off to Valhalla.
It would be a mistake to see this as a misery fest as there was plenty of dark humour and at times real insights into the intensity of close friendships. It was also a love letter to a friend, and how you navigate grief in your own way no matter how messed up it makes you. Rowland was an engaging performer who utterly disregarded the fourth wall, but there were moments when a decade after this show became an Edinburgh hit, he still filled up with what seemed like genuine emotion at the tragic death of his best mate.
Along the way Rowland candidly shared his experience of grief as a reminder that the same ending awaits all of us, but as he noted it’s also the one thing we can control in how we decide to leave this world. Rowland does sometimes go off on a tangent – although they are often funny – but doesn’t spare himself as he explored his descent into a self absorbed world of grief.
Rowland movingly recreated the intimate conversation the three mates had throughout their long friendship full of love and banter as they were forced to try to make sense of the senseless. It was a show where the props were just a plastic helmet, a can of Lynx Africa and a cheap keyboard where he sang us the song he composed for Tom’s final journey. The simplicity of the set and Rowland core message of living in the moment as he knows from bitter experience life is short allowed all of us to focus on our own mortality, and how we might be a Tom not a James.
As Rowland pointed out the only two things inevitable in life are death and taxes, but whether we go out in a box, or on a fiery boat, we all have agency. We live in scary times but thank Odin for this intensely moving show which reminded everyone in the room of the enduring power of friendship and love.
Viking Team is at HOME Manchester until Saturday 17th October. To book www.homemcr.org
Reviewer: Paul Clarke
Reviewed: 15th October 2026
North West End UK Rating: