Potentials

Four young artists make a drunken, drug-fuelled pact to die if they haven't made it by the age of 30. Now Benny, the first of them to each that magic age, has only one hour to go and is determined that the pact should stand - but how do his friends, called to bear witness, take the idea? Is the artistic fame and immortality of dying young that Max is promising him going to really happen?

This new black comedy by Dominic Mitchell is both very black and genuinely funny with the central characters of Max and Benny brilliantly played by Philip Brodie and Sam Donovan. Whilst I am not sure that we actually needed so much of the Frank/Karen history, Karen's latest position as manager of a reality TV company brings into stark relief aspects of fame in the modern world. These characters were brought up in a world where many of the great cultural heros had died young, that genuinely was a part of their enduring legend - but Karen is feeding a generation where people want to be famous as an end in itself, without effort, and can apparently achieve it by simply grabbing a reality slot on TV.

This has only been a three week run, it deserves more - I hope that the play, and the author, get the attention that they deserve! An excellent evening.