Writer: Kieron Barry
Director: Hope Wishart
Hope Wishart directs Stories For Boys at the Drayton Arms Theatre, delivering a long, disjointed discourse on love and death that has all the elements of a good play, but often feels too clustered.
The play starts with an excellently choreographed car crash, and explodes into an ethereal dreamscape of confusion as the characters investigate, primarily, death and the afterlife, and love and its ephemeral nature. The two main-ish characters, a fish and a donkey, discuss everything from art to philosophy to lexicography, as the audience waits to see if they will admit their feelings for one another. At its best, it could be compared to something like Pincher Martin or At Swim-Two-Birds.
The start is excellent, and in fact, throughout the performance, the choreography and use of props are fantastic. Set and costume designer Enza Kim, stage manager Catalina Diaconescu, and the rest of the crew are the shining light of the performance. Colourful, imaginative ways to describe the story continually impress.
It is way, way too long. Billed at 70 minutes, it finishes after 100. That is too long to not have an interval. Much of the play is not needed. The many Shakespeare (or Withnail?) references, the patronising descriptions of art, the never-ending reading of definitions from the dictionary, all could and should be cut.
The vignettes about death and love have no real point and should realistically be deleted, except that they are by far the best aspects of the play. The intricate yoga scene is hilarious, as is the recently deceased car crash victim scene. Asso and Basso’s long, segueing storyline, presumably the main plot, drags on so long that by the end, the audience loses interest, which is a shame because it finishes in an impressive cyclical arc.
Lewis Blomfield is probably the best actor of the bunch. Thelma Solea is good too. Samuel Ferrer, Adam Barlow do well, generally, and in fact so do Florence Dobson and Agatha Elwes; they are trained and professional and charismatic and funny and impressive, it is just that the play goes on so long, the audience becomes saturated with their company.
At best, it is witty, quippy and has elements of Stoppard, but it drags on and is filled in with far too much disjointed and affected intelligentsia.
Runs until 20 June 2026
