Brighton Fringe review

Ignore the billing that this is a ‘comedic one-man show’: that sets false expectations of what to expect, especially for a play staged in a stand-up space.

It starts with Stuart Bagcliffe petrified to be on stage, hair plastered to his forehead by nervous sweat and voice cracking with terror. That his tech is useless adds to the anxiety and it soon becomes clear this has all been his mother’s idea.

Some of this set-up, which is necessary to seed the denouement, is played for awkward laughs, but it doesn’t sit well with the overall tone, not least because Bagcliffe – or rather Michael Parker, who plays him – turns out to be an enrapturing storyteller, not the bag of nerves he first appears.

And the tale he has to tell is played with an entirely straight bat as he tells us of teenage sexual awakenings, to his diagnosis with the rare kidney disorder Liddle’s disease, to the horrific incident which the whole monologue revolves around.

It’s a compelling and intense drama, powerfully performed by a thoroughly believable, fully-rounded character. But it doesn’t really have any place calling itself a comedy.

Review date: 30 May 2022
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett