What happens to hope at the end of an evening…

Tim Crouch is a performer and writer of immense talent, and here we have him writing and performing with Andy Smith. It is an extraordinary combination of minds and methods. Crouch plays the part of a friend who has drifted away from a personal association; desperately clinging to a once-shared history, he is now angry at the loss. Smith has grown apart, too, but has moved on and found a new world and new associations. He is embracing the change but in many ways is no less angry. Crouch performs his role, but Smith delivers his like an academic paper, and although the two are in the same place at the same time their viewpoints crash into one another rather than meet. We grow and we grow apart, in so many ways. What was once important becomes less so for some of us and more so for others; change is inevitable and not always comfortable. What happens… makes you look at your friendships and associations in a disquieting way. Provocative as ever, Crouch has created, with Smith, an exciting work that unsettles and stirs the soul.

Dome Studio Theatre, 4 May 2014

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