Writers: Kalum Wilson and Liam Bull
Director: Kalum Wilson
Falling out during a nuclear fallout is the premise of Kalum Wilson and Liam Bull’s new comedy playing in the final week of this year’s Camden Fringe. Focusing on the relationship between brothers Miles and Connor with just a Game Boy and a paperback of Joyce’s Ulysses, the end of the world has rarely been funnier.
Their dad should be in the bunker with them, but just before the five-minute warning, he took himself off to do some last-minute shopping at Sainsbury’s. While Connor is more annoyed that he can’t find out the latest scores from the Aston Villa match, Miles is taking the apocalypse seriously, consulting the Government pamphlet that instructs the population to remain in their bunkers for a year before venturing out or, indeed, letting anyone in. Phlegmatically, Connor writes down the number one on a handy whiteboard; only 364 more days to go.
Miles wishes that he’d gone to his mother’s all-mod-cons bunker instead; the one she built with her new husband even has a cinema. There’s not much in his father’s one: plenty of tinned ravioli and that’s about it. Miles attempts to read Joyce’s tome, but doesn’t get further than the first page. He eyes Connor’s Game Boy enviously until the two brothers agree to share the console on alternate days.
The banter between the two siblings is well-played, and the two are evenly matched. Jacob Collins’ Connor is uncomplicated enough to enjoy spending the coming days doing relatively little. Perhaps his life outside the bunker was just as simple. He has little interest in world affairs, believing that a country called “Isran” is somehow involved in the global conflict. On the other side, Miles, played by Liam Bull, is more anxious, more preciously intellectual. He wonders if he might be the one to re-educate the world once the dust cloud has lifted.
However, just when we start to think that the playwrights have eked enough laughs out of the brothers’ arguments, a new man appears, and this livens things up no end. Micky David’s Danny is a terrifying character, a Frankenstein’s monster using bits of Rylan Clarke, Stacey Solomon, the Kray Twins and The Only Way is Essex. Falling Out moves into the territory of survival horror.
With a fun and stirring sound design by Jacob Newton, this post-apocalyptic comedy is a delight. We may not want to be stuck in a bunker with Miles, Connor and Danny for a year, but 60 minutes with them is a hoot.
Runs until 25 August 2026
Camden Fringe 2026 runs until 30 August
