Victoria Melody once described funerals as “very sad theatre shows”. This theatrical memorial to Martyn Hett, one of the 22 victims of the Manchester Arena bombing, is all joy. Like Martyn himself.
The day after the explosion, the hashtag #BeMoreMartyn trended on Twitter as more information emerged about the young Coronation Street superfan with a Deirdre tattoo on his leg and a cat called Emily Bishop. He held legendary Eurovision parties in his Stockport flat, loved Mariah Carey and lived his life as if he was the star of it.
A verbatim piece, based on interviews with eight of Martyn’s closest friends, this rough-and-ready but always vivid and heartfelt show captures the spirit of Martyn and his talent for friendship. It’s no hagiography. He could, remarks one friend, be “a sod”. He was as much a diva as the female singers he adored and whose faces plastered his toilet walls.
His flat, above a hat museum in Stockport, featured Lindsay Lohan mugshots in chronological order on the living room walls, but most of all it was a museum to Martyn himself. What emerges during this likable and touching, if too loosely edited evening, is that Martyn’s knack was always for being unapologetically himself.
This is a far more interestingly crafted work than a jog through Martyn’s life. It becomes a meditation on what friendship really means. It’s telling that almost everyone interviewed thought of themselves as Martyn’s best friend, saying he made them braver, more confident, more themselves. Now he’s gone. How do they fill the hole, and keep on dancing?
• At Hope Mill theatre, Manchester, until 26 May. Box office: 0333 0124963. Then touring until 3 June.
