Writer: Joe Sellman- Leava
Director: Yaz Al-Shaater
If you could go back in time, what would tell your younger self about the present? That Russia is at war with Ukraine? That the icecaps are melting? That politics have slumped to the right? That the Star Wars reboots are crap? When 30-something Joe Sellman-Leava finds some old home movies in which he is a 10-year-boy, he’s faced with these kinds of questions.
In 1999 the young Joe is about to see The Phantom Menace, and a life of a fan boy awaits. He will become obsessed not just with Star Wars, but video games, David Attenborough documentaries, Game of Thrones and The Muppet Christmas Carol. In a performance lasting 60 minutes, Sellman- Leava cleverly smashes all these passions together. His childhood will be familiar to any millennial.
But with so many details of the Star Wars franchise packed into the play, Fanboy requires not just casual familiarity from its audience but an intimate knowledge of the films’ plots and minor characters to fully appreciate the older Joe’s observations. In some ways Fanboy’s target audience is other fanboys.
Fortunately, the main narrative arc is more general. It charts the life of Joe as an awkward teenager finding his best friend, the equally nerdy Wayne and, then a little later, Gaia who will become Joe’s girlfriend. But as the new century continues, these relationships are hard to maintain. Wayne’s obsessions become right-wing fanaticisms spurred on by Social Media and the politics of Brexit and Donald Trump. Gaia becomes distant.
Sellman-Leava is an engaging performer, with a keen talent in mimicry easily conjuring the presences of Boris Johnson and Darth Vader alike. In a Superman t-shirt covered by a baggy dressing-gown, Sellman-Leava looks like someone who spends too long in his bedroom, represented by a simple but effective set. But his play is most engaging when he converses with his younger self. The young Joe is like the tagline of the first Stars Wars film: A New Hope. In comparison, the older Joe is worn down and shaded with cynicism.
Funny, but melancholic, Fanboy will certainly have its fans, but is just a little too nerdy for its own good.
Runs until 12 March 2023
