This play is intriguing from the moment one enters the theatre. The stage is largely a continuous loop of a travelator belt with several actors distributed along it together with props like a computer. The actors appear to sit on air. The action starts with the protagonist, Liam (played by Frankie Fox) visiting his doctor and completely failing to make himself understood.
This sets the tone for the remaining 70 minutes. We are immersed in the world of the fairly inarticulate teenager as he undergoes awkward encounters with girls and more street-wise acquaintances as he makes his way to his personal Mecca - SportsDirect in Oxford Street. Needless to say, he arrives just as it is closing and he is rejected by Security with no semblance of customer care or acknowledgement of the store's significance to him.
The end is handled brilliantly. Liam is asked by a career's officer how he sees himself in five year's time. There is silence; the travelator grinds to a halt and the lights fade.
The course of the 70 minutes passed slowly for me and I think this was because the action conveyed so well the emptiness of Liam's life. It is probably a play for Londoners, making such use of recreating elements of his London life from the Oyster readers to the Polish highway engineer. Without wishing to be patronising, it makes you think in terms of empathising for the lives of those unlikely to be darkening the doors of the Almeida in the first place.
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