DOUBLE ACT at Southwark Playhouse Borough 19 March – 05 April, 2025
"a powerfully moving work" ★★★★★
Suicide is one of the biggest killers of men in the UK. This is an astounding and terrible truth. Double Act, originally performed at the Lion & Unicorn last year and shortlisted for a London Pub Theatres, 2024 Standing Ovation Award for Best Duologue is back. Now at Southwark Playhouse Borough, it intends to get audiences talking about this awful indictment on society which both produces, and fails to understand or protect, so many sad, resigned men and boys.
Three acts across one day: morning, afternoon, and evening centre on the life of a single man. This individual is performed by not one but two actors, hence the title of the piece. As a representation of inner conflict and a warring self, this is incredibly effective. X, played by Oliver Maynard, is a stickler for punctuality and constantly reminds Y, played by writer-performer Nick Hyde, of all the things he should be grateful for. Sometimes they speak in unity, sometimes discordantly and sometimes they bicker and harangue each other.
Skillfully written and sensitively directed by Jef Hall-Flavin, this 90-minute piece with no interval takes the darkest of subjects and invites an audience to witness, consider and reflect. The two performers, entirely in sympatico, wear the white powder and tear-stained black eyes of traditional clowns and mime artists. Through the captivating power of physical theatre, comedy and storytelling, the audience is walked through the anointed day. There are encounters with nosy neighbours, an old friend, an ex, a ticket collector, and interactions with talking machines that serve to highlight a sense of urban isolation.
Most of the dialogue we hear happens as internal commentary, reminding us how much time some spend in their own heads, not necessarily a healthy place to reside. And the actual conversations with others: funny, entertaining, odd, serve to ratchet up the stakes. Each encounter is a lost opportunity for connection or understanding. Double Act does not preach, pontificate, or set out to shock the audience. Instead, creative text, sensitive direction by Jef Hall-Flavin and multi-role, absorbing performances make it enjoyable to watch and as beguiling as the theme tune to MASH. Look it up.
The role of masculine performativity is explored: what this looks like and how it feels to be alienated by myriad social expectations. The traditional sad clown mask illustrates the masks many men wear daily, hoping to ‘pass’ for what constitutes ‘a man’. A critic's instinct tells me Double Act could be shorter. Ninety minutes with no break on this subject is an ask. But in this context, this observation seems inappropriate. In the UK, a man kills himself every 90 seconds. This means in the time it takes to watch Double Act, sixty men will take their own lives, a sobering thought.
What’s needed is more time for each other, not less. And this valuable, powerfully moving piece of work fills the space memorably.
Robbie Nestor presents
Double Act
by Nick Hyde
19 MAR - 5 APR 2025
Photography: Tanya Parabu
