| 17 August 2011
Written by Dave Florez and performed by Phil Nichol, Somewhere Beneath it All a Small Fire Burns Still, is one performance you are unlikely to forget.Specifically written for Canadian comedian-turned-actor Phil Nichol, this play takes his personal facts and fictions and melds them to create a platform for his incredible, if not disturbing, acting abilities.
The show begins in a London café where Kevin, played by Nichol, is gushing out his most dark and perverse inner monologue to us the audience. Infatuated by Daina, the Lithuanian waitress, he sits ogling her while rasping that “there are only so many avocado-prawn cocktails a man can have before he gets his cock out and hits her in the face with it.” Kevin is unpredictable and vulgar, rattling off fantasies and delusions as quickly as he can grunt the word ‘f*ck.’ He is abrasive and intimidating to the extent that you feel nervous simply watching him, let alone when you are listening to the dialogue, which snaps and splinters with equal force.
But here is where something remarkable happens: just when you are losing your will to listen to this monologue, Nichol and Florez smash through the fourth wall, leaving you flummoxed with the unceremoniously delivered words, “Theatre is Bullshit.” Kevin’s broad Scots accent is scrapped and replaced with Nichol’s native drawl. I shan’t spoil the end by revealing what happens next, but I am still reeling from it. This show is expertly executed and leaves the audience wondering what was ‘real’ about what has just been witnessed. This is clever but unsettling stuff to begin your afternoon with.
Somewhere Beneath it All a Small Fire Burns Still, Gilded Balloon, 3-29 Aug (not 15), 12 pm
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