Le Garçon Néurotique
Josh Cameron (via The Dog Theatre) @ The Spare Room
10:45pm, Wed 3 Mar 2010
It’s fair to say that I was a little emotionally battered when I struggled in to see this show; it’s not like I’d just had my heart broken or anything (that’s happened during Festival time before, and was brutal), but I was feeling a little bit… weathered. Vulnerable. Especially after I took one of the few remaining seats in The Spare Room and immediately thought “this is the seat she would have chosen.” You know how it is.
So I consider it a blessing that Josh Cameron’s motor-mouthed monologue was able to sweep me away, dragging me into the seedy world of the cocktail bar waiter, full of unrequited lust and seething resentment. Full of vivid characters, evocative descriptions of places and people and events.
Despite the rapid rate of delivery, Cameron’s script is beautifully paced; it’s also extremely eloquent, with wonderful use of language. But I can’t help but think that it was too calculated; the c-bombs seemed a little too perfectly placed, almost to the point of feeling cynically shocking. Almost as if it wanted the audience to wander out thinking “wow, what a brave script.”
But it’s impossible not to like this. Cameron’s neuroses largely match my own, the smiling public face hiding the snarling hatred… he was, to me, a totally identifiable character. Of course, the xenophobia & homophobia, on the other hand, wasn’t quite so identifiable… Regardless, Le Garçon Néurotique proved to be a thoroughly enjoyable – though perhaps overly cynical – piece of Fringe theatre.