28 September – 1 October
To have your one-man show invited back for another run implies a certain impact having been made the first time round and certainly the theme of the award winning piece is no less pertinent today than when it was first performed. This one act show, which is about the bringing back of the original show, is a surreal fantasy delivered with a child-like enthusiasm and controlled irritation which Shôn Dale-Jones deftly manages to blend into anger as the good ship, ‘Holiday Home’, otherwise know as the Island of Anglesey, cuts itself adrift and sails away on a journey of discovery with his bestie, Dylan, a harmless conspiracy theorist and a schoolteacher, Mr Morgan. The mood, for the most part is enthusiastic, with an occasional slide into pathos.
It’s a moot point as to what goes first in the second homes debate, the jobs or the houses for locals, but the effect is the same in the destruction of centuries old communities. In the sixteen years since the first outing of Floating it hasn’t become any easier to defend the ‘blight’ of second homes in the holiday havens that have been made of Britain’s desirable locations. The 2019 film Bait, expressed in a more dramatic style the same tensions between affluent, often absentee, incomers and impoverished locals; it’s a source of social conflict and political debate that is unlikely to go away any time soon.
Shôn Dale-Jones in his present stage persona is a chummy, short, bearded and tousle-haired bloke who could be your mate down the pub. The stage set by Stefanie Mueller, who also directs, includes a desk with laptop, a dinner suit suspended and never used and a kind of bondage harness covered in fruit, which is. Shôn effects a contrived disorderliness and spontaneity that engages easily with the audience as he briskly darts about the stage, one moment calling on the computer to show a clip of V.T. and another an audio file. So off we go on a journey that is a kind of love letter to home, described with a bitterness tempered by warmth. Interactions with the audience are done with a geniality that avoids the buttock clenching that can often accompany forays into the first couple of rows.
The show will undoubtedly find ready empathy in various parts of the country as it goes about its national tour and the personal charm of Mr Dale-Jones will endear him wherever he sets up his stage.
★★★☆☆ Graham Wyles, 29th September, 2022
Photo credit: Peter Martin
