Candy

 A spur of the moment ticket booking,  the studio at Park Theatre was almost full, with the front half of the audience at tables as if in a cabaret bar.   In this short one act play, Will, a northern ‘bloke’ tells us about the time he fell in love at first sight.  The difficult bit is that Candy, the object of his affection,  is the drag alter ego of his friend Billy.  Is Candy just Billy, or someone completely different? The hour long monologue is an exploration of what love is, the boundaries and cross over between love and friendship, romance and sex, and how much we can ever know one another. Will wrestles with identity,  masculinity and mental health along with his fear of being alone as he first luxuriates in, then struggles with, his new feelings.  It’s peppered throughout with laughs and banter with the audience which punctuate those heavier moments, keeping it entertaining.  Will (Michael Waller) is a bit of a lad and can tell a story!  Underneath all of the jokes though I really enjoyed the exploration of what it is that makes someone attractive, and how much is in our heads vs the real person. 

My only problem tonight was a disruptive audience member.  She was clearly a bit tipsy as we were going in and she didn’t have a ticket to start with so was sent back to get one, then she ended up sitting just along from me, where she proceeded to play with her phone (which was not on silent!), stage whisper, shuffle through her capacious rucksack numerous times and drop/kick over drinks etc. Shushing and glaring had no effect. It’s such a small room, with a maximum capacity of 90, every single shuffle or clink of a drink is audible everywhere so it wasn’t just me getting a bit fed up.  At one point she noisily left the room, and I expected the ushers to stop her from returning, but no, back she came, noisily shuffling past everyone to sit down again and carry on as before, making the surrounding people pretty restless.  We were about half way into the play at this stage when she finally left again and this time a couple of staff left with her and she didn’t return.    But it definitely took the edge off the first half hour of what is only a one hour play which was a shame. Once it was clear she really wasn’t coming back we were properly able to concentrate on what should have been the focus all along. 

So, a play with lots of nice meaty stuff to think about, and with a moving performance at its heart.  But I spent far too much time thinking about how annoying people can be and planning out a bit of staff training for the ushers.