It's so rare that one person can hold a room so delicately, but Olly Hawes does exactly this in his one-person show exploring white masculine guilt in the context of a burning world doomed for destruction.
With just a mic on a stand for company, Olly welcomes the audience with a safe and conversational atmosphere: when we picture the man in this story, we might picture Olly, we might picture ourselves, or we might picture someone we know. But it works best, Olly tells us, if the person we picture is a man.
Narrating the story like a screenplay, Olly takes us on a journey from the morning a man arrives at an airport for a stag do, to that night where he gets high and cheats on his girlfriend, to a dystopian apocalyptic warzone dream sequence where he sacrifices himself to save a female civilian. All while wearing the same socks, and all while justifying the 'bit' he does for - who? Women? Immigrants? Himself? Seemingly not the latter as we witness the man's dismantlement and desire to end it all despite his gut feeling he can "live forever".
The script doesn't point to a right answer about how to be a good man but rather points to the audience and asks: do we think differently about the person we pictured? Olly lectures himself after his sinful exchange with a waitress that it's "time to be good", and that feeling of urgent hope is what we're left with once lights are up.
Olly's onstage charisma and commendable story-telling skills make the hour fly by, something often difficult to achieve for most solo-performers. The tone and structure of the script is perfectly eccentric and compliments the erraticity and confusion of the protagonist who's so desperate to find a clear answer. Essences of Tim Crouch peak out in Olly's third-person narration and comfortable relationship with the audience, yet he pulls off a style that feels entirely new and innovative for today's fringe scene.
The rhythm of the final third of the piece could be tightened in either the writing or its direction; it sat rather stagnantly next to what we'd seen so far, the subject of immigration hammered down heavily with little seeds planted prior. Despite the slight dip in pacing, the show’s ability to tackle complex themes with emotional depth and intellectual rigour is impressive.
The play's real strength lies in how it makes an audience be told a story like they've never been told one before. Olly demonstrates an exciting sharpness in his writing and an uncanny ability to make the abstract feel intensely personal. This is a show that dares to push boundaries, both in its content and its form, marking Olly as a distinctive voice in contemporary theatre and one to watch in the genre of solo-performance.
F**king Legend runs at the Pleasance Courtyard (Bunker Two) until 25th August - for more information and tickets, you can follow the link here.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (4*)
Gifted tickets in return for an honest review
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