Another instalment
in the spate of tales of East-End gangsterland which have appeared like
molehills on a golf course over the past few years, Whippersnapper
is a chilling one-man show by actor/writer Reuben Purchase.
Set (ostensibly)
in a pub - complete with grotesquely enlarged jar of pickled eggs, lit
spookily green at tense moments - Whippersnapper is one character's
story of a life gone badly astray. "Bam, bam, bam"; beats punctuate
a rollercoaster ride through domestic violence, unintended murders and
house music, where the steel legs of bar stools double as the bars of
a prison cell. This young whippersnapper will not "turn yellow feather"
as his forefathers did, but instead serves the sentence he has acquired
by living a life of misdemeanours. Whether he committed the crime for
which he is finally incarcerated remains unclear... But nobody comes to
redeem him; there is no happy ending. The bigger they come, the harder
they fall. The audience hardly has time to pity this cheeky cockney chappy
as makes his lightning slither of descent into chain-smoking psychopathology.
This is a
first for Reuben Purchase, an actor of considerable experience (from the
RSC to Xena, Warrior Princess), and he handles the strain of maintaining
a high pitch of performance (and coping with his complex, well-written
script) with skill. The set is clever, with the stalls consisting of pub
furniture (yes, you can take in your drinks) which draws the audience
even more intimately into the creepy world of the son of Frank "The
Fingers" O'Donnell. The complex lighting is really the second star
of the show, however, with hallowe'en green, bullseye-accurate spots and
even a spinning disco ball.
If you liked
films such as Lock Stock and The Italian Job, but found
yourself incredulous when it came to the comic finalés; if you
saw Nil by Mouth and fancied a couple more laughs to light the
darkness; give Whippersnapper a chance. Mr Purchase does the deceptively
baby-faced East End Bad Bwoy very well. These may be the only dark nights
upon which you can encounter such a whippersnapper without fearing for
your life.
Su
Jordan, 24.07.02
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