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ED2013 4/5 Reviews ED2013 Theatre Reviews
I Could’ve Been Better (Idiot Child)
By Gavin Leech | Published on Wednesday 14 August 2013
Interactive pastoral play about eccentricity, with a shocking undertow. The solo actor James Whiteaker immerses himself in cheery childlike trainspotter Jimmy just as he immerses himself in a ridiculous swimming rivalry with a child twenty years his junior. Jimmy conjures his beloved Allerton village using only his grinning simplicity, the audience (as townsfolk), and a giant model of a swimming pool made of liquorice allsorts. We make blank paper aeroplanes for him, and he reads love letters off them. His soliloquys to his damaged lover Sue are incredible, eloquent, but through them Jimmy reveals himself to be unbearably fragile, based on a few cold comforts. This makes his inevitable humiliation all the more brutal. Powerful, bittersweet, wistful.
Pleasance Courtyard, until 26th Aug, 1.15pm.
tw rating 4/5 │ [Gavin Leech]
