Fringe Online 2020
A Kiss From Back Home
Dan Horrigan
Genre: Drama, Fringe Online Theatre, Solo Performance, Solo Play, Solo Show
Venue: Wandsworth Fringe
Festival: Fringe Online
Low Down
He left his hometown for them to be together. Like feckless runaways they got to a place where they were welcomed more than at home. Whilst there he got a job serving fish and chips, they got the plumb job in a club. Losing sight of each other meant losing touch with each other and jealousy starts to rear its ugly head. He ends up watching the club, seeing what is going on and becoming agitated. In an attempt to reunite them he demands a job at the club but he aint the right type and it ends with them parting ways as he is cut to the bone.
Review
This short 20-minute performance is worth the watch because as an exercise in bringing pathos to the stage, it works well. Actor Harvey Bennet brings it in many ways with a performance that is touching and very honest throughout. Filmed at a live performance that helps as we get the connections between his character and his partner, through the reactions of a live audience, in their runaway crime.
His vulnerability is well enough observed but at times it tends towards the physical cliché and the script doesn’t always help. It has moments of brightness and then tends to fall down the hole of this is an unrequited love story without anything really new to give us. Bassett does show a deft touch and I think with a stronger hand in direction that seeks to find the shade within the piece this could work even better.
Technically all is as it ought to be and it reminds me that the harsh lighting effects on camera should not be taken for the effect it has live. The set was basic – a glass style box from what I could make out and if there had been more on set it would have really inhibited movement. The effect of the box was to enclose and give the impression of a claustrophobic relationship which was very in keeping with the piece.
Overall, this was a welcome exercise to watch in live situ and in performance that shows there is something both the company and the writing of Dan Horrigan has to offer. Perhaps a wee think about getting the best out the actors would help tremendously as the foundations upon which to build seem pretty strong.
