Writer: Terry Geo
On the face of it, Blink and You’ll Miss It begins like a series of anecdotes. Terry Geo relates stories about bad auditions and about how he met his husband. The tales are sweet but they don’t bring about the howls of laughter promised in the publicity. It’s a bit like reluctantly going round to a neighbour’s to look at their holiday snaps. But as Geo’s monologue continues, it becomes more intriguing.
Terry Geo is an amiable host, but his delivery is too polished and ready. He doesn’t miss a beat and doesn’t miss an opportunity to throw in a gesture. When talking about stepping back from a situation, Geo will step back rather too dramatically on the Hen & Chicken stage. Every pause and chuckle is carefully scripted. The upbeat tone never varies. All this means is that Geo remains very distant from his story and there’s no emotional weight to his words. You long for him to go off piste and be natural. You wish that he’d peel off the layers of theatricality that sometimes make his performance a little hammy.
But as the 60-minute play continues, it becomes apparent that Geo is acting rather than being himself, although the differences remain blurry. Soon after his character has met his future husband, a stint on the X-Factor beckons, and the West End and, then, even Hollywood want him. The desire to get out your phone to Google him is hard to resist. It’s a long way down from L.A. to the Camden Fringe (no offence intended). Once this doubt has been sown, and you realise that Geo is playing a character, the story becomes more urgent and, thankfully, more unusual.
You can now blame the character rather than Geo for his throwaway explanations for sexism and racism that are delivered as if they are revelations. We can now bristle with annoyance when Geo’s character says there’s nothing fancy about his ‘three bed, two bathroom house’ in Richmond. But at the same time we are still to admire him for his politics and his charity work. The character is a complex one, and not always likeable.
There is a surprise at the end of the show, and it does go someway to explain why Geo’s monologue is styled as a speech. It’s unexpectedly moving, and it mends some of the earlier problems of the play. Its view turns outwards to face the on-going persecution of the LGBTQ+ community in Britain and beyond. And although this is a brave move and a timely one, Geo’s character remains the same. There’s drama in this story, but no narrative arc. Geo’s character remains as chipper as ever.
Runs until 24 August 2022
The Camden Fringe runs from 1-28 August 2022
