The Review - THEATRE by JOSH LOEB Published: 8 October 2009
Rob (Jai Lynch) with mum Mary (Jean Apps)
Light touch in a heavy situation
TOGETHER WE'RE HEAVY Cock Tavern Theatre
NICE guys finish last, or so it seems to Rob. He’s infatuated with Lorraine, the girl next door, who is dating Walter, a prize twerp.
Caring, considerate and chubby, Rob lives at home with his mum Mary (Jean Apps, whose comic timing gets titters aplenty in the first act).
She nags him constantly to get a hobby or find a girlfriend, but he just sits slumped in front of daytime TV, munching on cereal.
It becomes apparent – but hardly surprising given his sedentary state – that Rob is suffering from a mental illness, and this becomes increasingly important as the play progresses towards its denouement.
Gary (Alex Papadakis), a personal trainer with nasty Neodarwinian views, vows to make Rob fit, explaining that the prettiest girls go for the most athletic guys – and our hero duly embarks upon an exercise regime to win over the lovely Lorraine.
The directors of the Cock Tavern Theatre, a newish fringe venue just down the road from Kilburn’s renowned Tricycle, evidently run a tight ship.
The set has been well executed, conveying homes in a block of flats in which the characters live, and a corridor in which they sometimes meet or listen for each other through thin walls.
Though it could be accused of erring too much on the “safe side” when a jauntier stance might have worked better, Together We’re Heavy is entertaining right up to the genuinely shocking twist that serves as its finale. Until October 24
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