THEATRE REVIEW: Toxic - The Garrick Playhouse, Altrincham.

Toxic masculinity is abundantly portrayed on the stage, but rarely examined and discussed. This new play by Dan Lovatt, which also looks at masculine depression, loneliness, and suicidal feelings, has strong characters, dynamic scenes, and a very good cast of actors. Last night’s performance was at the Altrincham Garrick Playhouse, as part of the Greater Manchester Fringe Festival.

I will confess: the execution of the production was noticeably affected by opening night nerves, and it did take everybody a little while to hit their stride. What I saw was 90% there, but when it reaches 100%, it will be a powerful and sensitive piece.

The set was made up of three generic locations: a sofa, a pub table, and a bridge. Opening with Andy on the bridge, looking downwards, the roar of traffic faded out and his best friend James joined him to coax him away. In the pub, James was now presented with a new modern rite of life: talking a close friend out of committing suicide.

Patrick Price, as the central protagonist Andy, gave a quiet understated performance with a lot of stillness and listening. Initially drowned out by his noisier companion, he came into his own once he was on the sofa alone, after a three-day binge on chardonnay and Tesco trifles. Now he could talk to the audience directly, and draw them into his world. His white-picket-fence life in suburbia had fallen apart when his husband had an affair and abruptly left him. There was a gaping hole where the love had been. There was now a full packet of tablets on the sofa with him.

An additional helper character was brought in with the arrival of Andy’s nephew Patrick, freshly thrown out by his girlfriend for smoking too much weed, and needing a place to stay. Joe Facer brought a lot of charismatic comedy to this laid-back stoner, and having two men indulging in wretched excess and becoming support buddies was an appealing idea.

Propping up the status quo on what an alpha male is supposed to be like was Camo, James’ other close friend. Joseph Thomas brought an interesting little Gordon Gekko edge to his performance, upping it from just a man who likes his football, beer and women. He could have been a little bit more grounded and complacent, to give James more to push against and disturb, but as previously mentioned, there were a lot of opening night nerves!

As James, Joe Gallogly had the most challenging character. On the surface James was a happy-go-lucky jokester, and it was quite late in the play before the searing loneliness beneath was fully revealed. If that double-layer could be utilised earlier in Gallogly’s performance, and more subtly, then the James character arc will be a strong counterpoint to the Andy one, and lead to a very impactful end to the play.

Director Connor Goodwin overall had developed strong characterisations with the actors, and four contrasting masculine performance energies. He did overlook individual moments though, many of which could be isolated and heightened and further add to the impact.

Producer and playwright Dan Lovatt was writing about a topic that he cares passionately about, and sometimes, particularly with the two helper characters James and Patrick, the playwright would be speaking rather than the characters, and some lines felt a little bit preachy and didactic. Overall however, this is an experience worth witnessing.

Reviewer - Thalia Terpsichore

on - 6.9.21