Angry Young Man – Holden Street – 4.5K

By Peter Maddern

Yuri is a young Eastern European surgeon who arrives in London to find work and a new life but is waylaid by Patrick, a debonair gent, who, in an act of friendship and goodwill, takes him back to the countryside and the family home. From there all manner of twists and turns play out.

This multi-award winning UK comedy was last at the Fringe seven years ago (when it won the Best Theatre accolade) and this new English cast will not disappoint any who saw it back then. Dressed in the same combination of grey suit, brown shoes and public school tie and armed only with chairs of different dimensions, the four strong male acting force assume an extraordinary number of roles from besotted female friends and park resident birds to hunting trophies and skin head punks.

Iddon Jones is Welsh but seems ideally (albeit not solely) cast as Yuri and the girl friend, always dashing around mischievously chirpy. While Paul Shelford’s Patrick amply conveys being one of those superficially pleasant but nonetheless toffee nosed twats of the English upper classes whose exploits beyond the walls of the manner and Eton are always destined for disaster.

At its roots, Angry Young Man is about two polar opposite types of English resident whose arrival into the great morass of the British middle world produces a rude and unhappy shock requiring infinitely more adjustment than either ever expected. Delivered in this manner, making masterful use of a fixed space and little else one is warmly entertained by the exquisite comedic timing of the guys and a rattling pace.

Great fun envelops a meeting of social misfits, all delivered with an eye but not an indulgence in farce. Highly recommended.

Kryztoff Rating   4.5K