An award-winning hit at the Edinburgh Festival, this matched pair of hour-long monologues penned and performed by Stefan Golaszewski himself has the ring of truth and experience about it even though the second is set almost half a century into the future.
Both tell of lost love and the moment when the romantic idyll turned sour. In the first, a rather nerdy 18 year old gap-year Stefan recounts a chance meeting with the girl of his dreams. As they bond over a packet of pork scratchings, he can barely believe this perfect vision would even give him a second glance. But there’s a sting in this story of teenage infatuation. After the interval, a septuagenarian Mr G returns, dressed in brown shirt and white suit, and looks back at nearly forty years of marriage to his beloved “Pudding”. Again there’s a fly in the ointment and his memories of his now deceased wife are tinged with the uncomprehending sadness which darkened the rosy glow of young love.
Golaszewski has a vivid, often poetic way with words and his experience as a stand up comic ensures that he knows how to carry an audience along with him. It’s an accomplished and charismatic performance - one feels for him, but there’s an uncomfortable, persistent niggle about his characters’ obsessive devotion to an impossible dream.
Bush Theatre, Shepherds Bush Green, W12 8QD, Shepherds Bush tube, until 9th January. £15 (Saturday matinees £13)
No comments:
Post a Comment