19 August 2022
It is the long, hot summer of 2017. Hopes are high. England’s new football manager is settling in. At Glastonbury crowds chant “Ohh Jeremy Corbyn” and sing along with Ed Sheeran. Three hundred miles further north, shy 14-year-old Middlesbrough lad, Liam (Jonathan Iceton) and mouthy 18-year-old stepbrother Paul (Tommy Leonard) are mulling over how to spend their holidays.
Liam has an exhilarating new hobby, boxing, that fills the space left empty by a woeful lack of friends, an absent father, and a mum who works all hours. He has a lot to learn but shows promise, and his ailing but determined Grandmother Mary (Alison Rose) backs him all the way. Taking part in the local under-15s championship is just the kind of thing that could change solitary Liam’s life. What could go wrong?
Some Boy You Are writer Aidan Tulloch in a man of multifarious talents. A composer and recording artist, his poems have been broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and 4 and performed live by Carol Ann Duffy as poet laureate. He has a visible talent for naturalistic dialogue. Sometimes it feels like actors improvising, but at its best the cadences and rhythms of Middlesbrough’s Teesside twang shine all the way through. Unfortunately, dialogue aside, there is a lot in this disappointing production that does not work the way it is supposed to.
The narrative unfolds in a curious mixture of narration, character interaction, inner monologue, and on one occasion a prayer. It takes a skilled writer to pull this type of mixture off and Tulloch does not always get it right. On one occasion it is hard to tell whether the actors are talking to each other, themselves, or the audience.
There are structural flaws too. The first half is jam-packed with ‘do you remember when’ and ‘I recall you used to’ monologues that deliver a heap of redundant and often uninteresting backstory, without adding anything to the narrative. Despite some very clunky foreshadowing the central turning point of the play comes out of nowhere. The second plot line involving Paul’s budding connection with barrister Maya (Lois-Amber Toole) feels too busy for a 60-minute work.
Jonathan Iceton puts in the best performance as bolshy, nervous Liam, although his face feels a tad too cherubic to be entirely convincing as a teenage pugilist.
It is refreshing to hear serious new working class writing, particularly work that showcases neglected Northern voices. Some Boy You Are deserves its showing as part of the Camden Fringe, but one suspect that Tulloch has very much better work than this ahead of him
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