Get us in your inbox

Search

Burnt Oak

  • Theatre, Fringe
THEATRE_BurntOak_CREDIT_StephenDobbie_press2011.jpg
© Stephen DobbieBurnt Oak
Advertising

Time Out says

This production returns following a run in 2011. This review is of the show's original run.

First time playwrights come in all shapes and sizes. In this, his début play, 50-year-old Leicester Square Theatre plumber Laurence Lynch displays a gift for memorably salty dialogue, which spews from the ruined mouth of ex-con antagonist George (a cartoonish Jason Wing) like a river of colourful slurry.

But a fistful of good lines don’t make up for the fact ‘Burnt Oak’ is an ill-disciplined work, which should have been heavily edited by experienced director Nathan Osgood.

There’s no pace or nuance to Lynch’s laborious storytelling, which details the misadventures of apprentice decorator Nobby (Louis Cardona, insipid) as he commences an ill-advised relationship with George’s daughter.

Remarkably little has happened by the end of the hour-long first half; after the interval Nobby has somehow become the world’s blandest alcoholic, while George proceeds to single-handedly channel about a year’s worth of ‘EastEnders’ plotlines.

‘Burnt Oak’ is too muddled to have any discernible message, too silly to work as a portrait of working-class London life, and far too sluggish to function as a thriller.

Details

Address:
Price:
£17.50, £15 concs
Advertising
You may also like
You may also like
Bestselling Time Out offers