Writers and Directors: Ciaran Duce, Joseph Ollman, Jack Staddon and Kieran Urquhart
Max, Cosmo, JJ and Luke were child stars in a TV show in which they played human wolves and who looked like, if the outfits are anything to go by, Power Rangers. That was years ago, however. Max went to Hollywood to play a lone wolf, but, tail between his legs, he’s back in London to stage a play. He decides to get the boys back together.
Except all he has for his new show is the title: Mates. And the young men only have a few weeks to come up with a plot. Beginning a little like Pirandello’s Six Characters in Search of an Author, each man offers his own ideas for a story. One of them suggests that Mates should tackle toxic masculinity, but JJ (Kieran Urquhart) is vehemently opposed to the idea, saying that there are already too many plays about the subject (correct) and that it doesn’t really matter anymore as all men now are “vulnerable” (wrong).
Luke (Ciaran Duce), a paranoid peddler of conspiracy theories, wants Mates to take on Big Business and Big Pharma who, in his belief, are behind the Covid pandemic: “plandemic, more like”. Without a hint of irony, trustafarian Cosmo (Jack Staddon) argues for a play calling for social equality. Max (Joseph Ollman) blathers on about Radical Empathy.
Their first attempt at Mates is very funny, pushing bad taste comedy to its limits, but increasingly their ideas become more surreal, and it’s sometimes hard to distinguish between the play and the play-within-the-play. Of course, that is the point, but the scenarios involving, variously, islands and Beckettian absurdity are not very compelling for the audience to watch. The 70 minutes begin to drag.
In its publicity, Four Face Theatre mentions how real conversations have been threaded into Mates, but conversations don’t always make good theatre. And because the actors try out so many genres, with American accents, too, at one point, Mates comes dangerously close to becoming a kind of audition showreel highlighting their numerous talents. The only thing that is missing is a musical theatre version of Mates.
With each attempt at a play, the material becomes progressively darker. Tempering this, though, is the stability of the characters. Max is always the actorly one, booming his lines to the Courtyard audience. JJ remains a cheeky Jack-The Lad throughout. Cosmo is forever mourning his break-up with ex-girlfriend Ingrid while Luke is caught between two planes of existence, even sleeping with his eyes open.
Very much like the play the men are writing, Mates doesn’t feel quite finished yet. Maybe some more brainstorming on the whiteboard is needed.
Runs until 23 August 2026
Camden Fringe 2026 runs until 30 August
