Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh
In an atmospheric staging, with poetic dialogue, Jason Brownlee sketches the cruel twists of a violent and abusive London childhood
According to the villain played by Jason Brownlee, his first word was an expletive. Perhaps he is using poetic licence to fit his relentless rhyming scheme, but he offers enough evidence of a damaged childhood to suggest it could be true.
Brownlee’s gangster is a child of violence, the son of an aggressive father and a kindly but drug-addicted mother. The suggestion is that he suffered levels of physical and sexual abuse that left him brutalised by the time he had reached his teens. What follows is a boozy collage of nights out; one minute, sex and cocaine; the next, a gun and a heist. The life of a gangster, it would seem, involves supplying your mother with gear in between heavy sessions in the pub.
At the Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh, until 29 August.
All our Edinburgh festival reviews
Continue reading...