BWW Reviews: KILL ME NOW, Park Theatre, February 24 2015

Chronicling widower Jake Sturdy's struggle to raise disabled son Joey with limited help from 'services', 'Kill Me Now' is an emotional yet darkly funny exploration of the lengths you will go to for your children. It also examines what begins to happen when the parent becomes the dependent, and what that means to an already challenged relationship.

Oliver Gomm gives an wonderfully physical performance as Joey, he exposes literally everything and the way his character matures from cartoon character t-shirts to suited and booted adulthood is touching, especially in the final scenes.

Back on stage after 17 years, Greg Wise is magnificent as the burdened Jake; again his is a physical portrayal, with the weaknesses of the body manifesting on stage and the torturous highs and lows of being a parent on full display, not least when he is bathing his son.

The best lines of the show go to Jack McMullen's 'Rowdy': "I've mild learning disabilities but hung like a donkey...what girl wouldn't like that?" He has the capacity to be a cult character, he's got the street wise vulnerability of Jessie in Breaking Bad and brings much needed light relief to the narrative.

As Twyla Sturdy, Charlotte Harwood does a great job of bringing fatigue yet feistiness to the character. She is crucial to the whole family's well-being, she feeds them and nurtures them mentally, sacrificing her self.

Jake uses the fact he has a disabled son as an excuse not to have a life. His once-a-week hook-ups with married mother Robyn "with a Y" Dartona (sympathetically played by the gorgeous Anna Wilson-Jones) are his only escape from the daily routine but when pushed to reconnect with old friends by Joey and Twyla, Jake would rather decline.

'Kill Me Now' has many flashes of black comedy; as a writer (albeit in a 20-year dry spell), Jake picks up the pen during the height of medication-induced delirium, scribbling his thoughts; "rye humour" as he swigs Jack Daniels. Unfortunately, his incoherency translates to the page and Rowdy can't read his handwriting.

Chris Davey's design works well in the Park Theatre's 'in the round' staging. He has created a homely environment for the Sturdys to dwell in.

Brad Fraser's original writing is witty yet exploratory of some painful subjects, it's a fast moving show, the passage of time is slightly hard to determine - a romantic relationship which has been going for twelve years and Joey seems to have matured to graduation over a short space of time.

Braham Murray and his cast had the majority of the audience in tears at the climax (the people behind me could barely control their sobbing) it will leave you heartbroken but but strangely optimistic that, ultimately, people will help those in need.

Until 29 March

www.parktheatre.co.uk

Photo Credit: Alex Brenner

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