7 – 8 September

Anyone who thinks that nostalgia is not as good as it used to be needs to see Fanboy. During an exceptionally inventive and technically adroit sixty-five minutes Joe Sellman-Leava revisits his childhood obsessions, and in doing so he has created something entirely fresh and thoroughly engaging. On a set that is a skeletal version of his bedroom, he appears dressed in pyjama bottoms and a Superman top, as if stranded between maturity and childhood. He rattles off a lengthy list of long-held enthusiasms: Star Wars, The Muppet Christmas Carol, Warhammer and so on, all delivered in breathtaking rapid-fire fashion, and featuring spot-on impersonations of favourite characters. It is a skilful, amusing demonstration of stereotypical nerdiness. Rummaging through shelves he finds a dusty old videotape of his eighth birthday party, which he plays on an old TV. So far, so straightforward, but then he seems to engage in a lively dialogue with his younger self. At first this apparent interchange appears to be nothing more than a piece of editing trickery. However things then become much more surprising and much more complex.

What follows is a subtle exploration of the way our interests and enthusiasms become fiercely defended territories with which we identify ourselves, often leading to hostility towards those who do not occupy the same ground. We learn of a close friendship founded upon a shared intimate knowledge of all the various episodes of Star Wars, but which founders when later differences emerge on topics far removed from the merits or otherwise of Jar Jar Binks. The line between obsessive childish enthusiasm and rigid adult ideology becomes blurred. Inexorably the narrative reaches 2016, the year of Trump’s ascendancy and of Brexit, and of many fractured relationships, both personal and political. Fanboy vividly illustrates how nostalgia has become weaponised, with populist leaders employing catchy slogans that invite us to return to a time when we were supposedly great, or when we had more control.

At heart Fanboy is one man’s story, but though it is self-referential there is very little that is solipsistic about it. Sellman-Leava has taken Wordsworth’s idea that ‘the child is father of the man’ and runs with it, often in surprising directions. What begins as a touching account of personal memory becomes a deeply serious exploration of self-identity and of identity politics. It is an extraordinarily ideas-packed piece of theatre, almost too much so. Plaudits must go to Director Yaz Al-Shaater and to Technical Designer Dylan Howells for creating a show that integrates personal narrative and audio-visual wizardry in seamless fashion.

There are sequences in Fanboy that might baffle anyone entirely unacquainted with Star Wars and The Muppet Christmas Carol, but Sellman-Leava is an immensely talented performer and writer and even those who have never shared any of his youthful passions will find much to enjoy and to ponder.

★★★★☆  Mike Whitton, 8 September 2023

Photo credit:  Duncan McGlynn