Crazy
Gary’s Mobile Disco -
touring
Playwright - Gary Owen
Director Vicky Featherstone
Designer Georgia Sion
Lighting Designer Natasha Chivers
Company - Paines Plough with Sgript Cymru
Venue - Traverse Theatre 0131 228 1404
Online booking and lot of info at www.traverse.co.uk
Dates
- 10 -
12 May at 8pm
Crazy Gary’s Mobile Disco, Gary Owen's play about 3 dysfunctional
people from a small Welsh town escapes cliché simply by being incredibly
well written and acted. I was dubious about the length of each monologue
as I entered the theatre, but was absolutely captivated throughout.
The play begins with the bully, Gary, ranting for some 45 minutes. But
Gary is not repentant, nor is he successful. Indeed, his mobile disco's
regular pub slot has been replaced by karaoke when we meet him. Gary,
uses this as a perfect situation in which he can kick someone in, the
karaoke compere, this time. David Rees Talbot plays, with excellent
spirit, Gary - both the unenlightened male and its antithesis - almost
realising the pointlessness of his own existence and continuing it just
for the sake of it. I was left with a very empty feeling after watching
him.
Next is Matthew D. Melody, cabaret singer, rekindling marriages and
relationships with his voice, but only for five minutes. He's telling
this to the lady in the job centre. Playwright Owen is very good at
keeping the audience going for some minutes, then revealing a harsh
reality. A product of bullying, under the care of social services, Matthew
sings in public, gets down at street corners to pray, and has violent
episodes with household pets. Steven Meo's Matthew excellently
flits from one sudden state of mind to another - at once resigned and
furious about everything going wrong for him
Russell Markham, Richard Mylan, is the third trying to escape
a dysfunctional marriage and the small town he is stuck in. The link,
we eventually discover is that he and Matthew were best childhood friends
when Gary bullied them. This theme is a bit stale, and Russell’s piece
does not have either the same humour, or realism as the first two, letting
the whole down somewhat. However, Mylan's Russell is very well
acted and even though the story goes a bit overboard at the end,
Mylan fills the piece with so much energy, that it still works.
This play is well written and captivating with incredible energy displayed
by all three characters. They never appear on stage together, but their
lives are permanently affected by each other. Their monologues are filled
with twists that link them, and the links are well produced. Dramatised
small town angst can be a bit hackneyed, Gary Owen's Crazy Gary’s
Mobile Disco avoids being so.
© Kenny Morrison 10 May 2001
