Niall Ashdown's follow-up to Hungarian Bird Festival, his terrific one-man show, is a major disappointment and not just because it contains no trace of tantric sex. Hungarian Bird Festival was an eagle among one-man shows because it did something rare within the format: it created a deeply affecting emotional experience. Ostensibly about a bird-watching trip to Hungary, it was actually about Ashdown's relationship with his father.
The Man Who Would Be Sting attempts to do something similar, with the music of Sting in his Police days standing as a metaphor for all the unfulfilled "I wishes" in Ashdown's life, including his desire to be the golden-headed Geordie tantric sex god himself. But while Ashdown remains an engaging performer, the show has no distinct through-line and for too long comes across like a not particularly funny stand-up set. It is not a show that anyone could possibly dislike, but then neither is it one to love and cherish.
It eventually reaches a theatrical and emotional apex in his telling of the loss of his and his former partner's baby in early pregnancy, but for much of the evening the show is all over the place. Ashdown's recollections of his teenage years and lost loves ring absolutely true, but he hasn't yet found a way to make them theatrically interesting. He falls back on his own appealing personality and some knowing "I-am-breaking-theatrical-convention" game-playing with the audience.
Ashdown uses a single prop - a piano - to considerable effect, helping to provide a framework for the piece. But overall, the impression is of a series of anecdotes, memories and observations that have not yet been melded into a fully satisfying whole. As in life, the gap between aspiration and achievement gapes wide.
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