Review: LOST SOUL 2, Liverpool's Royal Court

Brick Up the Mersey Tunnels and Council Depot Blues writer Dave Kirby is back at Liverpool’s Royal Court with Lost Soul 2.

Back for a second time since its original premiere at the theatre in 2019, you do not have to have seen Kirby’s comedy Lost Soul to understand its sequel and within minutes, you feel like you have known the characters your entire life.

Lost Soul 2 sees the return of Smigger, wife Donna, best friend Terry and sister-in-law Pat. We meet Smigger and Donna again following the birth of their first grandchild, who they look after most weekends. However, all Smigger wants to do is dance to 70s soul music with Donna, Terry and Pat at the local nightclub Soul Train. However, their nights out have come to a sudden stop recently - and Smigger is starting to go through a mid-life crisis.

Heartwarming, hilarious and huge amounts of fun, Lost Soul 2 has it all - iconic music, laugh out loud jokes, characters that you love from the very first instant they walk onto the stage and a story of romance, family and friendship that resonates with the audience from the first minute to the last.

Lost Soul 2 takes place on Jocelyn Meall’s excellently designed set, which includes a beautiful tribute to the actor Jake Abraham, who died in 2023. Abraham previously played Terry in Lost Soul 2 and the production pays tribute to the much loved actor, with a photograph of Abraham on the set in Smigger and Donna’s home.

The set also uses the theatre’s historic revolve stage to brilliant effect and seamlessly transports the audience from the Soul Train nightclub, to Terry’s house and more in a story that you will be talking about for months, if not years to come.

Kirby is an exceptional writer. The cleverly crafted wordplay between Lenny Wood’s Soul Train barman and Michael Hawkins’ Charlie left me in tears of laughter and I was still talking about it when I left the theatre. Meanwhile, the duologue between Andrew Schofield’s Smigger and Lindzi Germain’s Donna in the first scene sets the bar high for the comedy to follow - and it does not disappoint.

The production is well paced and each joke lands perfectly. Every single member of the cast gives the show their all - from Schofield’s monologues reflecting on Smigger’s life, to Jennifer Hynes and Wood’s dance on the Soul Train dance floor, which has audiences clapping along and cheering for more and a brilliantly choreographed chase scene between Schofield and Hawkins in act two.

Highlights of the show include Smigger and Donna's holiday in act one, which got some of the biggest laughs of the night and combines brilliantly timed physical comedy from Schofield with hilarious one-liners from Germain. Along with a perfectly recreated homage to a classic TV advert by Paul Duckworth’s Terry and Catherine Rice’s Pat, you can feel how much fun the cast are having onstage with the characters.

There is also an outstanding performance from Wood’s barman, who stays in character during the interval and can be seen onstage cleaning the bar, making you feel that you are in the Soul Train nightclub - even while you’re waiting for act two.

Put on your dancing shoes and get ready for a night to remember with this five star comedy hit.

Lost Soul 2 is at Liverpool’s Royal Court Theatre until Saturday 14 September

Photo credit: A B Photography

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