Time for the Good Looking Boy

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It’s the remarkable performance by Lloyd Thomas that really makes this neat one-man show. He’s thoroughly convincing as a London teenager celebrating with his girlfriend after the end of exams in Michael Wicherek’s play, bringing a bristling muscularity to the role and communicating magnificently the complexities and contradictions of the young man.

Despite his streetwise appearance, he actively confounds stereotypes, displaying a keen intelligence and a care for others – which makes the unexpected conclusion to this ultimately poignant tale all the more shocking. Describing the show as an ‘urban ghost story’ in the publicity blurb might be giving too much away, but don’t come expecting cobwebs and floating sheets – here the supernatural is very much part of a grimy city landscape.

The simple but beautifully constructed set, designed by Rhys Jarman, plays with notions of home, and direction by Iqbal Khan is clear and precise.

It’s just the sense that the final cataclysmic events seem to come out of nowhere that creates a feeling of slight disappointment. Maybe there’s a point there about the randomness of life. But it makes the story no less chilling, nor the performance any less powerful.

- David Kettle