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 As a playwright, Block is not Beckett, but still his writing has many of the qualities of good observational comedy. His play is true to life, has intelligence and wit, and there are many funny lines and some inventive wordplay (“Are you saying I’m a bullshitter? Do you think I shit bulls?” Eric enquires at one point).
Reviewed by Paul Kane
Not a Game for Boys by Simon Block is showing at the Manchester Library Theatre ( www.librarytheatre.com) from 19 to 28 April 2007.
*****
Not a Game for Boys by Simon Block
Directed by: Simon Pittman
Cast: Stephen MacKenna, Glyn Grain and Paul Thornley
This revival of Simon Block’s debut play Not a Game for Boys, originally staged in 1995, presents an opportunity to look at it once more and see how it has lasted. It is fairly minimalist in structure: there are only three characters in total, and for most scenes only two are on stage at any one time. Oscar, Eric and Tony all belong to a Table Tennis club and the play recounts an evening during which they play out a crucial match. As each man in turn plays in a game offstage hitting balls, the other two men banter about how life – work, women and family – has been breaking their balls. Mostly the men lose, in both games.
There’s a definite period tinge to the play, present most of all in certain of the men’s attitudes towards women. To attribute this to “Laddishness”, however, seems wrong; two of the men here are middle-aged, so would hardly have been part of the Loaded generation. Rather, it seems like good old-fashioned male chauvinism.
The cast give excellent performances. Stephen MacKenna makes for a maudlin Oscar, full of deadpan wit; Paul Thornley plays Tony (the younger man) as a gullible and cocky schmuck; and Glyn Grain as Eric could easily be the product of Sir Ben Kingsley in Sexy Beast times ten. He utters a great many Anglo-Saxonisms (and the occasional Yiddishism), and seems to relish and savour the filthiness of the language too. The play moves along at a brisk pace too, each act being snappily introduced by a snippet of Ska music (The Specials and Madness; the wrong decade, but no matter).
Overall, Manchester Library Theatre’s production of Not a Game for Boys offers a diverting and restful evening, provided you have a tolerance for swearing. As a playwright, Block is not Beckett, but still his writing has many of the qualities of good observational comedy. His play is true to life, has intelligence and wit, and there are many funny lines and some inventive wordplay (“Are you saying I’m a bullshitter? Do you think I shit bulls?” Eric enquires at one point). This is one for all us ludic losers, male or female, who are still in the game.
About the reviewer: Paul Kane lives and works in Manchester, England. He welcomes responses to his reviews and can be contacted at pkane853@yahoo.co.uk
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