Champ addresses the experience for many young white working class boys in Britain who feel a strange alienation from the world around them. They can easily lose their way and feel that life will pass them by as they struggle to work out who they are and what they can make of themselves.
In this play, presented in the wonderful Wardrobe Theatre by the Tobacco Factory Theatres as part of the ‘A Play, A Pie and A Pint’ BEYOND programme the writer Samuel Bailey and director Jesse Jones have created a powerful, believable – and a genuinely authentic character, Danny. He may not be a champ. But he could be, and that’s the point.
Danny is a frustrated, thoughtful, charming young man, and over the course of an hour we learn a lot more about him than meets the eye and, more pertinently, much more than he would imagine anyone would care about.
He has a mum and some mates, but what he really wants, is someone to take an interest in him and help him make sense of his place in the world.
The play very skilfully and with great subtlety, explores the relationship that Danny develops with Nira, his contact officer in the Job Centre, and the unlikely friendship which is struck as a consequence of them recognising and connecting with each other’s humanity. Champ could easily have fallen into the trap of using the stereotypes in a pick and mix bag of racial insecurity, inflexible bureaucracy, petty crime, drugs or violence. Because it doesn’t it allows Danny and Nira to illuminate each other’s story and explore what it’s like to live their lives. At first neither understands the other, but through a shared inquisitiveness they develop an empathy that gives both of them hope. At one stage Danny is surprised when he’s asked what he wants – “no one ever asked me that before”, he says as he finds it hard to give an answer. Both Josh Finan and Alma Eno give the characters real depth through their well-paced and intelligent portrayal. The actors’ clarity – of words, expression and tone all light up the work.
Danny is at times angry and aggressive, playful, and caught up in a childhood that he doesn’t want to escape, but he’s also very funny. He may seem inarticulate but can he express himself with a powerful voice when he allows his mask to drop to reveal a touching insecurity. Danny is real and you won’t forget him.
The plain set design by Anna Orton, the delicate support given by Jack Drewry’s sound and the sparse yet unobtrusive lighting designed by Tom Richmond all perfectly complement the production and the fact that the play was written in just four weeks and rehearsed in only two is testament to the strength of innovative theatre in Bristol today.
Even the pies and the pint were excellent!
Danny may not yet be a champ, but the play is a knockout. ★★★★★ Bryan Mason 17th November 2016
