Writer: Simon David
Director: Chris Larner
Just when you think the dead dad show genre has less life left in it than the comedian’s father’s, Simon David has come up with a format that shakes up the cliched and take it somewhere it’s never been before.
Opening with a song proudly announcing the obvious fact that he’s a man in a skirt and he’s not wearing trousers, you could almost believe you’d walked into the wrong venue for the first few minutes at least. He then goes on to reminisce on his school days, wearing a skirt in school and a school prom, which ends with his dad dying. His delivery is superb, setting himself up as shallow and self-obsessed, while also calling back to the early days of Julian Clary in the classic throwaway remarks he makes about his dad’s illness.
After this, and ignoring the pleas from his director, Chris Larner, delivered by phone, he goes on to pastiche a 1980s American movie about a man arriving in New York which quickly switches from the story of a small town boy to a sex extravaganza in the backroom of a nightclub playing Madonna songs that ends with the death of the lead character’s dad, and then attempts an arts council funded movie set in the North of England that manages to be funny even while it’s playing up the most pretentious features of the genre. David also mocks himself by performing them as if he believes that they are high art that will win him the Olivier he says is his by right of being gay.
An interpretative dance piece and a Netflix Comedy Special are also thrown into the mix, as he reduces them to their key components and milks them for all the laughs its possible to get before ending them and moving on. Each section of the script used his dad’s death as a framing device, and a vehicle for comedy, but there is never the slightest hint of the mawkish humour that is normally found in a dead dad show. It’s only in the closing section of the show that his dad finally takes centre stage in a beautifully told piece where he talks about his dad’s reaction to the news that he was dying and the final years of his life. It’s sad and yet also uplifting to hear.
From start to finish, this is a superbly written, directed and performed piece, parodying styles and stereotypes and always finding the jokes. Simon David deserves the awards he dreams about getting.
Runs until August 27 2023 | Image:
The Reviews Hub Score
Dead dad show reborn
