Reviews London TheatreWest End & Central Published 12 April 2016

Review: Raz at Trafalgar Studios 2

Trafalgar Studios ⋄ 22nd March - 16th April 2016

Living for the weekend: Will Howard reviews Jim Cartwright’s latest work at Trafalgar Studios 2.

Will Howard
Raz at Trafalgar Studios 2. Photo: Oliver Rosser.

Raz at Trafalgar Studios 2. Photo: Oliver Rosser.

When it comes to a piece of theatre, it can be argued that what separates the good from the great has nothing to do with what goes on stage. Instead, it’s what stays off it that really counts. It’s not easy to create good performances and good dialogue, but good editing and good dramaturgy are even harder to come by; especially when it comes to independent theatre or new writing, where the creators might not have the connections or the attention to demand it. Raz, the new one man show written by The Rise and Fall of Little Voice‘s scribe Jim Cartwright and performed by his son James, is a perfect example of how a good creative team can wring pathos, hilarity and insightful social commentary out of 60 minutes of stage time, without it feeling overstuffed.

James Cartwright stands on stage in various degrees of undress for a lot of the piece’s running time and puts the audience at the heart of a Friday night out in a working class town somewhere in the north of England. Cartwright plays Shane, a prototypical jack-the-lad character who within the first five minutes of the piece is brandishing his phone and proclaiming he has a “veritable aviary of birds” on it.

It could be excruciating, alienating and annoying, but Cartwright fills Shane with wit and heart to balances out his undeniable crassness. He’s the kind of character you’ll swear blind you’ve met before. And while some kudos has to go to his father’s skill with naturalistic banter and lyrical flights of fancy, it’s James that struts away with the show from the first time he appears on stage in nothing but his Superman boxer-briefs and some swimming goggles, to the way he stands 60 minutes later, heartbroken, wasted and crying real tears, looking over his town with the rising dawn.

The show makes several cutting points about the state of a nation and the mindset of a generation that get obliterated weekend after weekend after working soul-sapping jobs that a computer will soon be able to do. By getting the balance of implication right, the piece has much more effect than if Shane was perched on a soapbox. However, when the audience sees his visceral anger burning through his calculated aura of bonhomie, such as during an impromptu stand-up set, it feels like the anger really does come from the character, not the writer or actor.

This is an important piece of theatre, and one created with the aim of changing minds. It speaks eloquently and effectively about people of my own generation, reaching – given the average audience age in the Trafalgar Studio – the kind of people to often judge them harshly. Rather than make excuses, it seeks only to explain the behaviour of the disillusioned and the disaffected.

Raz is on until 16th April 2016. Click here for tickets.

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Review: Raz at Trafalgar Studios 2 Show Info


Written by Jim Cartwright

Cast includes James Cartwright

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