A Day in the Death of Joe Egg

Synopsis

Joe Egg is the name given by Bri and Sheila to their spastic child. To make their lives bearable they have evolved an elaborate series of fantasy games about Joe. Yet ten years of devotion to a human vegetable have created terrible strains on their marriage and when Bri sees an opportunity of allowing Joe to die, he takes it. The attempt fails; Joe's living death will continue.

Our Review:

17 December 2001

A very brief programme biography states: "From 1986 to September 2001 Eddie Izzard was playing Tebonius in the Shakespeare's Julius Caesar at the Southend Playhouse." While that is a (surprisingly feeble, perhaps deliberately grammatically incorrect) joke, Izzard's latest theatrical role is, however, far from one. It's not stunt casting, either, to have him replace Clive Owen in the transfer of Peter Nichols' A Day in the Death of Joe Egg from the New Ambassadors to the Comedy.

In fact, the part of Bri - father to a severely handicapped daughter - could have been written for him, so naturally does he assume it. It helps that the character, with several direct address commentaries delivered straight to the audience, is indeed part stand-up comic, painfully mitigating the sit-down tragedy of the situation by making us laugh at it. (Izzard's last West End appearance, in the title role of Lenny, was also a stand-up one, in more se...

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Latest User Review

USER: Whatsonstage.com - 4 February 2002:

Parents struggling to cope with the demands of caring for a severely disabled child does not sound like the stuff of comedy. Yet, Peter Nichols unique and courageous comedy manages to be sensitive, intelligent and thought provoking whilst being one of the funniest plays around. Victoria Hamilton is brilliant as the mother. She almost manages to convince you her belief that her daughter will improve is not totally unfounded (even though common sense tells you it is). Eddie Izzard as the father is a simply inspired piece of casting. Prunella Scales is totally believeable as the mother-in-law whilst John Warnaby and Robin Weaver perfectly embody the enthusiastic (if clumsy) do-gooder and his queasy wife who simply cannot cope with disability (as embodied by young Sophie Bleasdale on the night I was there). All-in-all a supberb production....

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