Review by: Paul Towers, 13 June 2018
Checkout by Rob Gee
Upstairs @ The Western, 13th June 2018
“Hilarious, often Orton-esque.”
It is often difficult to critique a work in progress. In the
case of Rob Gee’s Checkout he had the script to hand as this was a very early
read through. While the main elements of this hilarious series of interlinking stories are all there I feel
there is still a little work to link them smoothly. That said, this is once
again a travail through the often bizarre mind of Rob Gee, comic, poet and
psychiatric nurse.
Dominic wakes up with a memory blackout and discovers he’s
handcuffed to a coffin containing the cold stiff body of John Major. Archie
has bequeathed his pacemaker to his friend who falls in love at his
funeral. Maddy has kicked a burglar in the groin and now she has a taste
for it. Bollock has his issues. Along the way we discover how a secondhand
pacemaker can make a great toy for a 6 year old.
Gee’s last show, The King of Egypt (or Icarus Rising)
introduced us to his surreal world and Checkout allows us to immerse ourselves
in it even further. Hilarious, often Orton-esque, episodes pile one upon
another as his characters lurch from crisis to crisis until, finally, they culminate
in a sort of resolution. At least for some of them.
Information about Rob Gee’s work can be found at www.robgee.co.uk
Upstairs at The Western http://upstairsatthewestern.com/
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