Synopsis Welcome to the bizarre, dark world of Mike's flat, where answering machines that talk back can incite you to murder and Sean Connery1s parrot can save your life. Where one twin can be mistaken for a transvestite serial killer and another is a cheapskate who wants to get his hands on anything so long as it is a bargain! Obsessed with cold-hearted killers and homicidal maniacs, Alan is hardly able to think about anything else. His personal hygiene is put to one side so he can spend his every waking hour dedicated to his sick pursuit of the macabre. And looking on in helpless horror, as Alan fills his home with tasteless memorabilia, is Mike. Poor lovesick Mike, still in love with Kate, Alan's cousin, and the only reason he allowed the little twerp to set foot in his home in the first place! Should an elderly father come out of the closet while Sooty and Sweep are employed as killers? And could a broken toy aeroplane really set in motion a series of frenzied attacks? Alan might have the answers. But he doesn1t know what we know. A crazed and violent psychopath is set on dropping by!
Comedies don’t often come much sicker, weirder or funnier than Jeffrey Dahmer Is Unwell, whose title pays irreverent tribute to a play that celebrated another Jeffrey, in that case the writer Bernard, but in fact plays like The Odd Couple as re-written by Joe Orton.
Just before Mike’s girlfriend Kate walks out on him, she bequeaths her cousin Alan to him, who turns into the flatmate from hell. And simply won’t leave. As a clash between two obsessives is orchestrated – Mike for model aeroplanes, Alan for the lives, histories and memorabilia of serial killers – a murderously funny comedy unfolds.
Alan is played by Alan Francis – an unappetising vision in his white Y-fronts and dressing gown, and even more gruesome, for reasons I won’t reveal here, decked out as a woman – and Mike by the appealingly pent-up Mike Hayley. But these two virtuosic comic actors – who also first wrote this play as an Edinburgh cult hit ten years ago – are even better when doubling as their respective, still weirder, brothers.
As propelled by director Anthony Neilson as a dark, fast comedy of furious laughs and dark obsessions, some of the momentum is lost in the second act, but you may not get that far: you might well have died laughing beforehand. The King’s Head may just have a substantial hit on its hands.
Pure side splitting entertainment. I couldn't tell if I was feeling sick from laughing or because it was so disturbingly weird. A standard 6 week run in this charming but small venue does not feel like it will do this great production justice - 194.72.181.182)
Society of London Theatre member. As part of the relaunch in 2008 the seating capacity has increased from 112 to 140. Home of London's Little Opera House in rep.
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