Theatre / Reviews
Review: Smalltown Boy, The Weston Studio, Bristol Old Vic – ‘An engaging, funny and poignant four-hander’
It’s a tale as old as time – the return of the prodigal son, the wild rover, the roaring boy who escapes the claustrophobia of his upbringing to come back as the conquering hero. Except, in the case of the eponymous smalltown boy of Brenda Callis’s play, the protagonist arrives home not in a Ferrari, but an urn.
The late Leo departed his Cornish roots to find himself, meeting the love of his life, drag queen Edie, in Bristol. We don’t know how he died; only that Edie must visit Cornwall to somehow give succour and comfort to Leo’s grieving mother Claire (Kate Milner-Evans), former best friend Hannah (Shiquerra Robertson Harris) and her partner Stephen (Theo Cowan). And when Edie steps off the train in their finest feathers and sequins, somehow we know that this isn’t going to go well at all.
In just over an hour, this engaging, funny and poignant four-hander explores a world of grief, repression, parochial values and escapism, all coated in a fine soundtrack of 70s and 80s gay disco classics.
Smalltown Boy – photo: Caitlin Damsell
All eyes, of course, are on the arch, camp, brittle Edie, played with more than enough sashay-away by Elliot Ditton. Edie initially pivots around a chippy ‘sad/not sad’ demeanour with no more than a flick of a manicured hand and a witty aside.
Arriving in Cornwall, they are naturally the talk of the town, and that’s just the way they like it – until, of course, they meet the grieving trio.
While Hannah is receptive to Edie’s charms, revelling in shared memories of Leo, Claire and Stephen are initially suspicious almost to the point of surliness. Edie smells homophobia – yet, beneath the layers there is an unspoken sense of acceptance and shared values. And it’s not only Leo’s mum and his two friends who are peeling off the masks; Edie too has an awakening as their armour drops and we see the person behind the warpaint.
Photo: Caitlin Damsell
Inevitably, perhaps, there is reconciliation and tacit acknowledgement that Leo shouldn’t have had to keep secrets and run away to become the person he was.
For me, the pace slackens slightly towards the end of the performance, and although on press night I felt there might yet be another twist in the plot, it didn’t arrive.
However, this is not to take away from the play’s core message – that joy and heartbreak are often inexplicably linked, and that to change, as well as to accept change in others, doesn’t always require grand gestures or dramatic departures.
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Smalltown Boy is at The Weston Studio, Bristol Old Vic on January 28-31; times vary. Tickets are available at www.bristololdvic.org.uk.
All photos: Chris Clegg (artwork); Seb Alexander (photography)
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