REVIEW: CRASH AND BURN by William Leckie at Etcetera Theatre 20 – 23 September 2023

‘highly original treatment for this drama about environmental terrorism in response to the climate emergency.’ ★★★★ 

A play about oil might be likely to divide audiences. My guest for the show, having worked in the oil industry himself, hated it. He disliked the Scottish character (the oil tycoon), having worked ‘with so many people just like that’.  Personally, my feelings were rather different, I saw the play as a debate, calling on several different perspectives, and audiences are not told what to think, they are just being reflected. Rather like the spice girls, which one are you, ‘sporty’ maybe? It’s a little more biting and incriminating than that.

The story unfolds in a fictional Scotland amidst increasing geopolitical tensions related to energy and security.  The premise for the play, is a group of people on a gas guzzling private jet heading towards Glasgow’s COP26 climate conference. On one side there’s the oil man, his PR and his daughter and on the other the celebrated actor and his publicist. Also in the cabin, we have the flight crew. Just as the title suggest, they are all about to crash and burn. The flight attendant has an axe to grind with the oil industry after family members died in a rig disaster. He is the unlikely ‘terrorist’ in cahoots with the oil man’s daughter, the ‘activist’. There’s the ‘capitalist’, the oil man, who fought his way up, determined not to end up in the mines like his father. His PR is the ‘compromiser’ trying to calm things down. The actor, and yoga guru, has immense self-belief and aggrandisement, he is the ‘front man for causes’;  whilst his ingratiating publicist is forced to realise, in the face of death, that she’s wasted her life on a job which leaves her unfulfilled, is the ‘head in the sand’.

The acting is superb with excellent physical theatre. The direction also, really shines and makes this show dynamic and fascinating to watch. Each of the characters comes across as stock, beautifully defined. It’s a highly original treatment and this is where Etcetera Theatre comes into its own.  This is the third excellent show on this stage which looks at some aspect of global warming.  A subject that is curiously rarely broached. Crash and Burn is an intelligent response to the crisis, funny, well written and well researched. These are recognisable characters, which one are you?

‘Crash and Burn’ is written by William Leckie, Marlowe’s The Other Prize winner 2021, and author of sell-out play ‘Bacon’, which won London Pub Theatres Award for BEST PRODUCTION (new writing) in 2022. In this production, Leckie also plays the role of the actor demonstrating a terrific stage presence. He’s clearly a huge talent.

CRASH AND BURN

20-23rd September, 9pm. Etcetera Theatre, 265 Camden High St, CAMDEN

Box Office https://www.etceteratheatrecamden.com/events/runaway-wkwlt-yh5d9-pkyc8-pplnp-tnwd5-3n4ny-krk9y

Cast

Joseph Johnson (Father/Oil man)        Nick Gill

Jane Johnson  (Daughter)                       Emily Gibson

Lewis MacKenzie (Flight Attendant)   Noah Miller

Margot   (Father's Assistant)                 Claudia Rosier

Cynthia  (Amodius' assistant)               Lydia Clay-White

Amodius Vassano  (US celebrity)         William Leckie

Crew

Director                   Zoë Morris

Sound Designer     Elie Arden

Lighting Designer Seena Shafai

Reviewed by Heather Jeffery, Editor of London Pub Theatres Magazine