Fseveral characters are more reliably funny than the delusional, disillusioned actor whose recognition and self-respect slip forever and painfully away. Ricky Gervais gave us a version in Extras. Now Graham Dickson takes a break from his improv career (he performs with Austentatious, like so many other great soloists before him) to bring us this one-man offering.
It might as well have borrowed its title from another fringe genre, Bebe Cave’s The Screen Test. The idea is that Dickson’s show never gets off the ground because his agent keeps calling him to audition for a better production. So the show is put on hiatus and Dickson – or the charming, babbling neurotic he plays here – tapes a self-tape with the help of willing audience members.
That help is (almost) always available because the man from Free Association is just so lovable, embodying that Hugh Grant-like, wealthy but self-deprecating type that is so easy and often so fatally to fall for. OK, so he’s made a fringe show about, er, moths that he feels obliged to deliver. But in reality he’s so puppy-like yearning for his chance that when the chance comes along, you can’t begrudge him auditioning for a Game of Thrones knock-off, then a kitchen drama, then an oil industry ad.
While other roles are read by the audience, Dickson plays his roles in front of the camera, with the image projected onto a screen in the background. Occasionally these sections, and the humour of Dickson’s fussy reading of text and perfectionism, are too drawn out. One could argue that the character’s wretchedness, so immediately apparent, would have worked better as a slow reveal. At the performance I attended, there was some uncertainty as to whether things had gone wrong intentionally or in some other way.
But the show’s tragicomic arc, as Dickson’s desperation (for a job, for his father’s approval) comes to light, tends mostly toward lively amusement. And in a show about a man struggling to find an outlet for his talents, Dickson’s skills – improvisation, crowd work, delicious charm, and measuring a tear of emotional significance into his silly solution – are on amply display.
