Greg is about to turn 15, loves football, finds girls a bit weird and rows a lot with his dad.
It might all sound familiar. At first glance Bottleneck appears to be a coming of age story sprinkled with Liverpool FC love, local references and 1980s moustache appreciation.
Until the moment it isn’t, with a devastating reveal many in the audience at the Royal Court didn’t see coming.
Bottleneck is a one-man show, but Greg’s world (including his dad and best friend Tom) is brought expertly to life by actor Daniel Cassidy in a vintage Reds shirt, leaping around a bare stage dressed only with the Liverpool FC posters of a teenage boy’s bedroom.
Cassidy brings incredible energy to the role, and has the remarkable ability to switch from hormonal teenage boy to quietly seething dad, teenage girl and police officer in the blink of an eye.
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Just the flick of an eyebrow, a dropped chin and a change of vocal pitch bring Greg’s friends and family to life, and it’s mesmerising.
The play is short at just over an hour but packed with vivid detail on Greg’s chaotic home life - including his mum’s affair, his dad’s frustration boiling over, whether or not he’s still a virgin and his life on the Boot estate.
It’s easy to be caught up in his frantic mission to earn enough cash for his ticket to the match, one that finds him sweeping up hair in the barber’s and stealing newspapers before a run-in with the police.
The Scouse plays and performances to see in Liverpool theatresTom needs an inhaler and the newspapers the boys deliver are the S*n - the hints of something darker ahead are always there but by this point audiences are too invested in Greg’s story to tear their eyes away.
The play’s final moments are respectful and sensitively handled, but the unfolding loss of innocence still comes as a gut punch.
Bottleneck won’t be to everyone’s liking, but it’s essential theatre .
