This likeable one-man show proves that middle-aged men don’t have to run off with a younger woman to find satisfaction.
With his marriage in tatters, journalist Jasper Rees developed an unexpected new hobby when, stowed away in the attic, he rediscovered the musical instrument he last played (disastrously) when he was a 17 year old schoolboy. Twenty five years later, he sets himself the challenge of performing in front of an audience of French horn aficionados just twelve months down the line.
Performed by Jonathan Guy Lewis (the co-adaptor of his book) this amusing mid-life crisis monologue charts Rees’s progress from the initial germ of an idea to his performance in Mozart’s Third Horn Concerto at the annual festival of the British Horn Society. As well as a bit of horn history, he brings to life not only the increasingly panicking Rees but also the experienced player who coaches him, a German former maestro who suffered a stroke and now teaches at the American horn camp he crosses the Atlantic to attend, and his old music master from schooldays.
Like all taxing tasks, his attempt to master 16 feet of intractable coiled brass tube is full of doubts, uncertainties and potential humiliation, but, as he puts the mouthpiece to his lips for the crucial final concert the audience is really rooting for him to succeed.
Hampstead, Eton Avenue, NW3 3EU (020 7722 9301) until November 28 (£15-£25) Under 26 - £10
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