Writer and Director: Ben Donaghy
The mixture of stand-up and drama in Ben Donaghy’s one-man show doesn’t always work as the comedy routine takes us too far from the double bed that dominates the stage at the Hen & Chickens. When the play begins, Boy is in Paris on a romantic weekend break with his boyfriend, who’s just gone out on a work errand. But can we believe all that Boy tells us?
It takes at least half of this 50-minute play to realise that Boy could possibly be an unreliable narrator. He informs a French hotel employee that he’s a travel blogger, but he’s been no further than Paris and his later descriptions of foreign countries for his followers sound suspiciously vague; the cuisine is always delicious and the people always friendly.
Interspersed within his travels are segments when Donaghy takes up a mic and becomes a comedian, although his jokes are deliberately underwhelming. However, despite ribbing one front-row punter, Donaghy’s character performs for an imaginary audience of family and friends. Are the other scenes of Boy, writing updates for his blog while sprawled on the bed, based on a facet of performance too, a vision of how he wants to be seen rather than the man he actually is?
As doubts about Boy’s truth multiply, BED slowly becomes a study of isolation and pain, very much like Tracey Emin’s My Bed, which Boy remembers seeing at the Tate. Indeed, all his problems stem from this gallery visit when his nerves got the better of him. Will they always get the better of him?
Durham actor Donaghy is excellent in the role, quickly becoming someone we care about. And so, when the façade crumbles, it’s all the more tragic. Donaghy never overplays this twist in the plot and the end of the show is nicely ambiguous, but the viewer who likes sad endings may posit that Boy is still the same man he was at the start of the play, never quite reaching self-knowledge.
The loneliness of the stand-up comedian ultimately parallels the absence in Boy’s hotel room, but there’s still a disconnect between the two different theatrical forms. If Donaghy could find a way to bind them more closely drama and stand-up wouldn’t be such uneasy bedfellows.
Runs until 5 August 2024
Camden Fringe runs until 25 August 2024
