Blackbird in the Snow – Laurels Theatre, Whitley Bay

Writers: Arthur McKenzie with David Whitaker

Director: Alison Stanley

It sounds like a set up for a joke: what do you get when you put an estranged comedy double act back together years after an acrimonious split? Placing such a volatile duo, both awaiting heart procedures, together as roommates in a hospital is the central premise of Blackbird in the Snow, a play twenty years in the making that had a difficult development period thanks to medical emergencies and an untimely death.

Two decades ago former Northumbria Police detective and writer Arthur McKenzie came up with the idea for the play with actor David Whitaker. McKenzie had already suffered with heart problems at this point, and not long after starting the project McKenzie had similar issues. Then in 2012, McKenzie suffered a severely debilitating stroke and subsequently passed away in 2020. And now McKenzie has finally made good on his promise to Whitaker to finish the project, the result being a touching piece where, to a certain extent, art imitates life.

Warring double acts are far from a new or original concept. Perhaps most famously it is central to Neil Simon’s The Sunshine Boys, and more recently was the basis of the 2018 episode of Inside No. 9 (Bernie Clifton’s Dressing Room). It even has a place in reality with Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis’s hatred for each other only equalled by how popular their movies were with the public. Blackbird in the Snow echoes Bernie Clifton’s Dressing Room by having one of the duo leave to branch out on a solo career, leaving the other bereft and bitter.

The central duo are played by Donald McBride as Bobby Baron, the broader of the two comics who is constantly cracking jokes, and Bob Smeaton as Earl Knight, the more pragmatic of the pair whose decision to travel to London to seek his fortune is the catalyst for the split. While both are well cast, McBride in particular is extremely good at portraying a comedian, his end-of-pier dad jokes landing some genuine laughs thanks to his excellent delivery, and brilliantly balanced with the venomous bile that he spits at Smeaton’s Earl. Smeaton is also an able performer and excels in the later scenes following complications during a simple medical procedure, all of which leads to a beautiful final scene of the two together.

The small cast is completed by Steve Wraith as Baron and Knight’s agent as well as an arrogant heart consultant, and Alison Stanley as the nurse stuck between this “double act from hell”. Both provide strong performances with director Stanley being particularly impressive when taking into consideration that she had to step into the role barely 12 hours prior to curtain up on opening night.

The strong performances drive Blackbird in the Snow, even when the script often feels somewhat lacking. The play has Stanley’s nurse providing a framing device by recalling the story that then unfurls. This is completely unnecessary and regular returns to this monologue (which she delivers to the titular bird) add nothing. Equally, the central relationship feels undercooked. We get a brief flash of the pair performing their act together, but more of this as well as a deeper probe into their relationship before they cross paths again in the hospital would have been hugely beneficial. As it is, the script feels very surface-level and under-developed, which seems strange when it has taken twenty years to write. However, this one act, one hour play does end on touchingly emotional note and there is definitely enough here to recommend visiting a visit to the Laurels Theatre for an evening out.

Runs until 17th May 2025