REVIEW: Flashbang by James Lewis at The Lion and Unicorn 20 – 29 February 2024

‘Well executed, but in need of a greater payoff’ ★★★

A group of lads in a nondescript town somewhere in the UK. They’ve grown up together, know everything about each other, and all worry about whether they’re going to escape and move on to bigger and better things, or stay and settle, mimicking the lifestyles of their parents. They spend their time dating girls, playing football, and going out to the one terrible nightclub in town. Until one day, something happens to one of the group that disrupts everything, changing their lives forever, the ‘flashbang’ of the title.

Thematically, there are some great ideas at play here. The small-town mindset, and the short list of things you can do there to keep your life ticking over, is realized in Flashbang through some fun scenes in the nightclub with the cast doing some appropriately cheesy dancing, and some nice ‘banter’ between the cast, who clearly do have a lot of genuine chemistry. It is an exploration of masculinity, the bonds that are formed between young men, and, later, partially about their relationship with father figures. There is good use of projections on the back wall, especially in the closing moments of the play.

The scene of the ‘flashbang’ moment itself is also excellently executed. Without giving this away, the whole cast do a great job throughout of jumping from moments of childlike joy to despair and trauma after the event. It is heart rending, after having the backstories of the group thoroughly established, to see them react to the tragedy.

Overall, though, my reaction was fairly muted. The character to whom the event occurs is not nearly as well established as the others, meaning that whilst their reactions are convincing and performed with gusto, it is difficult to connect as emotionally as the scene requires. The focus is on them, rather than the person affected, which abstracts it, and takes us further away from the experience.

There is also a lot of backstory - the same ideas are driven home repeatedly, to the point that the plot actually takes a long time to actually take off. In fact, there sort of isn’t much of a plot until the ‘flashbang’ moment, and, whilst the scenes after that are powerful, there is little sense of forward movement. I was expecting the moment to be a turning point in their lives, a ‘life’s too short’ realization: but in an epilogue scene set a couple of years later, the group tell us that most of them are still just in their home town, some of them settling down – the very thing they were worried about doing at the start.

So, whilst the event might have ‘stunned or disorientated’ them like a flashbang, it did not make them change course. The event would without doubt be traumatic and tragic for anyone involved – but there is little sense of character change or development as a result. There is an opportunity for a more forensic exploration of the lives of young men; I think we want to see how this truly was a night where ‘everything changed’.

Images: Ross Kernahan (@rosskphoto)

Flashbang
Written by James Lewis 
The Lion and Unicorn
20^th – 29^th February
https://www.thelionandunicorntheatre.com/whats-on

Flashbang is written by James Lewis and Directed by David Brady with Movement Direction by Lucy Glassbrook.

Cast includes: Nick Hardie as Ryan / Ryan, Benjamin Booth-Bennett as Ryan / Jason, Matt Wake as Ryan / Andy & returning cast member Fred Wardale as Ryan / Deano & featuring Dan Nash as Mikey.

Reviewed by Jonny Kemp