Review: Wingman, Soho Theatre
06/09/2014
Plays often resonate with your own experiences but occassionally they can get so close as to touch a raw nerve. This was the case with Richard Marsh's Wingman and as a result it moved me in quite a profound way.
In Wingman, Richard (Richard Marsh, naturally) is caring for his terminally ill mother when his estranged father Len (Jerome Wright) decides to make an unwelcome appearance. It was a scarily and emotionally familiar scenerio.
Marsh's writing brilliantly draws out the humour turning the tragedy into something that is naturally farcical - families just have that effect on us all if we can take a step back and observe. It is funny but while everyone else was laughing I was crying. It was all a bit too recent to laugh about, just yet.
Richard's story then takes a path a safe distance from my own raw recollections. Len is still determined to forge a relationship with his son. He has cut himself a set of keys to his flat and keeps letting himself in. Richard is still resisting out of anger, betrayal and a loyalty to his mum but has other problems he needs to address like a new family of his own.
Like The Me Plays at Old Red Lion, which I saw earlier this week, the dexterous mix of verse and prose gives a gloss of poetry to the human condition, making it beautiful, epic and ridiculous at the same time.
Wingman is well-observed, moving and entertaining fun. It is deftly performed with just a couple of chairs for props and once I'd licked my own emotional wounds I enjoyed it very much.
Its running time is one hour 10 minutes and you can catch it at the Soho Theatre studio space until Sep 20.
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And if you like this sort of theatre then you might also like The Me Plays