Missy Lorelei reviews the first piece from this year's Behaviour festival.
(Image: Gary McNair, photo credit: Eoin Carey)
A real labour of love for writer/performer Gary McNair, this heavily researched show, made in conjunction with the National Theatre of Scotland, flits between theatre and stand-up routine—indeed, halfway through he stops to briefly check if each half of the audience is sated, juxtaposing a broad, silly gag for the comedy crowd and a performance artist joke for the theatre crowd.
Exploring the need for affirmation, McNair suggests that exploring the dark side of one's psyche is the way ahead when branching out into stand-up. Schadenfreude is fine, but only if your target has hurt you first. With this in mind, he plays an extension of himself who takes in a gauche school kid, the Donald of the title, and becomes his guru when he hears the hapless kid get bullied after trying to tell jokes on the bus. To tell more of the man and boy's story would be to give a spoiler, but both McNair and young co-star Michael Kelly are superb.
The stand-up is beautifully observed, with several false starts demonstrating the limitations of different styles (''erm...Jimmy Savile?" he offers meekly, apropos of nothing, and the awkward silence is perfect, followed by nervous giggles) and the pathos is never overegged, nor too prosaic.
Cunning, smartly paced and with just the right dash of poignant material.
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