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ON TOUR
 

 

 

Andrew Schofield stars in On Tour the tale of a Scouser, a Manc and football at the Liverpool Everyman.

There was a Scouser, a Manc and a Cockey, all stuck somewhere in Scandinavia – but it’s no joke, although there is a lot of funny business going on in this deadly serious thriller. Because the trouble with imagining you are a big fish in a small pond is that unless you really are as cold-blooded and vicious as a shark, you end up all at sea.

H and Daz are having to share a cell, though the former, in a mesmerising performance from Jeff Hordley, is a wide boy so broad, it’s a wonder there’s room for anybody else. The original wheeler-dealer, if he can’t do it or get it, he knows the man who could, and with H’s gift of the gab, he’s the epitome of a little learning being very dangerous, compared to the thick, brutal ex Commando, Daz; Paul Anderson makes a lovely job of appearing whiter than white. Still, maybe the two of them can do business together. Once released, H is meant to be helping out his old mate, but looks like he’s best at laying plans to help himself.

In a cleverly conceived set, the grim cell is transformed, with a nice bit of choreography from the actors, into a luxurious hotel room, where things rapidly unravel when they meet up with the third man, Ray, who is a total nervous wreck. Played by Andrew Schofield, as usual, he just puts in an appearance to have the audience in the palm of his hand. A master of metamorphosis who knows the value of stillness, he can raise a laugh with one look or gesture or word.

The rapid fire dialogue hooks from start to finish, other than the rather girly discussion about labels, though comical considering the protagonists’ complete lack of style. Bluff, counter bluff and more double crossing than a series of Kirkby kisses, and OK, the twist in the plot involves a deux ex machina both transparent and fragile. Luck, fate… Life imitating Art, and vice versa; the same exploitation, chaos and Rent-A-Mob is what’s rising right now across the Channel. There are always dilemmas, as Daz expounds in the oddest summing up ever of ‘Hamlet’. And not always easy solutions.

The question to be addressed is: did this thriller prove an excellent evening’s entertainment? The audience definitely thought so, and it was good to see the theatre packed out on a cold, wet Monday night.

Carole Baldock

BBC Liverpool - 9th November 2005

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