Park Theatre 31st May -1st July. Reviewed By Jessica Brady
The Park Theatre is a trendy modern venue with a great atmosphere and most definitely the right place for a new play! Twitstorm, by Chris England, is a look into how social media dictates many aspects of our life and how it can have disastrous consequences in the wrong hands.
Guy Manton (Played by Jason Merrells) is a very successful TV show host, he has a stunning house, a beautiful wife, Bex (Played by Claire Goose) and a young son, the perfect set up. With his career on the rise with a potential move across the pond to America with his show things couldn’t be any better and with over 500000 twitter followers he has no worries about it being a success. Guy however, doesn’t control his twitter but instead leaves it to the writer of the show and best friend Neil (Played by Justin Edwards) who comes up with clever quips and updates to keep Guys fans interested. Neil and Guy work from the comfort of Guy’s home while Bex is writing her novels and sponsoring children in Africa. Unexpectedly, Ike (Played by Tom Moutchi) one of the very children they sponsored but lost touch with years ago, turns up at their door now an adult claiming that he had travelled to find them as they are the only ‘family’ he has left much to Guy’s dismay. Bex listens to the harrowing story of Ike’s family being slaughtered and the long journey he took based on photograph of their house and takes him in. To celebrate the end of the series of his show, Guy hosts a bbq for all the crew on the recommendation of his agent Rupert (Played by Chris England), this doesn’t end well for Guy as he makes a shocking remark that involves Ike and Ike posts it on Guy’s twitter as it was ‘only a joke’.
This of course escalates into a huge scandal where Guy is accused of being a racist and is being bashed all over social media putting his career in jeopardy.
Despite the above description, England’s Twitstorm is a comedy and a hilarious one at that! The eventful moments that this show holds had me laughing out loud due to the sheer comedy of errors Guy finds himself in. This is a fantastically written, modern play with excellent characters that we can all relate to in one way or another and the script it oozing with witty one liners and uncomfortable moments where you want the ground to swallow you up but in a good way.
Each performance is incredibly strong and seamless and not a single beat of the comedy timing needed in a show like this is dropped. Merrells and Goose have such presence on stage, great chemistry and lead this cast brilliantly. Special mention must go to Ben Kavanagh who plays Daniel Priest he is such a naturally talented actor and I loved his character storming in heels around the stage!
The set was also really impressive with a modern open plan kitchen and living room, made to feel very inviting and spacious and with lots of top of the range furnishings. Also there were tweets being projected throughout which made you feel very much a part of the mayhem that was happening, a great touch.
Overall Twitstorm was a triumph and laugh out loud funny! You will love this fantastic play and characters so much you may just want to go home and tweet about them! Catch Twitstorm and The Park theatre #Itshilarious