Whip-smart, chokingly funny and thoroughly entertaining, Phoebe Eclair-Powell’s debut play delves into the real and online lives of two young males. Mark is 16, emotionally disconnected from his grieving family after the sudden death of his father, and doesn’t quite fit in at his private school where he’s on a sports scholarship. John is the French teacher whose good looks and swagger make him an object of fascination to Mark, who wants to be just like the older man.
But appearances can be deceptive, and although Mark thinks he’d like to have some or all of what John has got, including confidence, sexual attractiveness, a long-term relationship (with a girlfriend called Claire) and a flat, he doesn’t realise that his teacher is as walled up and cut off as he is himself.
John is an arrogant, insecure liar who despises his pupils, is cheating on Claire and fears that she may be two-timing him. When Mark takes advantage of Claire’s unlocked Facebook profile and she accepts him as a friend, his and John’s lives collide with explosive results.
The plotting stretches credulity, but the writing is sharp as the two fractured monologues curl around each other. Leon Williams as John and Sam Clemmett as Mark (below) are both terrific and make you believe in these confused males who are uncertain what it means to be a real man, particularly in a world where on-line porn and new identities are available at a click.
This isn’t just an eye-catching writer’s debut either: director Jamie Jackson and movement director Isla Jackson-Ritchie add layers of meaning and deception through the physicality of the staging. And Max Pappenheim’s sound design often cleverly sets up tensions that reveal the gap between desire and reality and the conscious and unconscious ways we present ourselves to the world both online and in everyday life.
• Until 4 April. Box office: 020-7978 7040. Venue: Theatre 503, London.
