Lorna Irvine reviews a production that 'mostly works' but is too polite.
It's 1989, and Cher is an iconic solo artist with a neo-raunchy rock chick image. Not that Sonny and Cher obsessives Peter (Johnny McKnight) and Lily (Julie Brown) are aware of this. Indeed, they're not aware of much, existing in their own little psychedelic bubble. Practising their moves and routines, the shiny flaresuits mask a marriage on the skids, soaked in gin, OCD and pills.
When perma-perky Joan (Julie Wilson Nimmo) moves in next door, she threatens to break apart not only their marriage, but the couple's darkest secrets.
Stef Smith's script is glorious, densely layered with provocative dark humour and asks wider questions of why the media is fuelled by prurience and speculation, no matter how hurtful to the individual.
It mostly works. McKnight and Brown's physicality together is enough to elicit laughter (her willowy beauty, his short stature and comedy porn moustache). There's natural chemistry there.
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Yet there is an overwhelming politeness which doesn't always go for the jugular. Glimpses of vulnerability cut through the cartoonish scenes apeing the famous duo, but Lily's promises of "secrets and violence" never quite come to fruition.
Still, a fine study of warped suburban misery, with many acerbic one-liners--particularly Joan's "optimism gives me heartburn".
And The Beat Goes On tours Scotland until April 24th
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