Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Written and performed by Graham Hicks.
Just over a year ago Graham Hicks walked on stage at the Unity Theatre and gave an inspired, mesmerizing and enthralling performance of his play Next!
Since that time, the play has been re-worked slightly, a few changes added and improved upon, if that were at all possible and the end result is that Graham Hicks deserves to be considered a hero of local theatre. It is not everyone that can carry of an entire performance by themselves. Not every entertainer or actor is capable is just using the littered insanity that makes up a life in order to make the audience feel a kinship, a special type of longing to befriend someone in dire need of comradeship or even just to pick up the phone as they await that one call that could change their life.
The story may have become a bit longer but the style and substance that carried Mr. Hicks and the certain morbid affection that the crowd has for him has remained constant. The moments of excellent slapstick that happen on stage is highlighted with an almost careful desire to make sure that the jokes don’t overrun and become dull and monotonous. To say his comic timing was spot on would be to understate the point. Even when the audience wasn’t sure when something was scripted, it still felt seamless.
The heroic isolation that everybody feels at some point in their lives, whether they live alone or just a part from those they love, is felt keenly throughout the play, never more so when the tension becomes real for a few minutes and Graham moves away from his alter ego and gives what seems to be a frank dissection of one particular moment of his life as he discusses his father’s unnerving way of unconsciously ignoring his son. The stark realization on his face as he jokingly retells the part that his father says I shall pencil you in, only to not turn up is bittersweet and makes you love this ultimate procrastinator more.
As the phone continues to ring and Graham finds more insane ways to avoid picking up the call, one cannot help but feel sorry for him but at the end of it all, it is all the audience can do is cheer and acknowledge the supreme effort it took to make Next! a play of sparkling believable joy.
Ian D. Hall