| 12 August 2011
Lee Fenwick's alter ego - the unemployed shipbuilder from Tyneside, Mick Sergeant - has previously done well at the Fringe. Unfortunately, in this year’s offering of dark humour and heartfelt dismay, Fenwick manages to push the bitter satire, along with the audience’s morale, over the edge.
His subject matter is poignant, and all the more relevant given the current climate. Before us is a man who once built ships and is now scraping by in his bedsit, watching the likes of Kirsty Allsop sell million-pound homes to embryos. His self-respect and masculine pride have been shattered: he even has to gee himself up in front of a mirror before he can engage properly with the audience.
The sense of bereavement and hopelessness is powerfully delivered by Fenwick and aided by Sergeant’s fluency in self-help techniques, which are patently making no difference to the underlying issues. Big Society rings from time to time to rub salt into his wounded pride, calling him a ‘layabout work-shy bastard.’ There are some moments of comic relief, but when they arrive, Fenwick is quick to ride roughshod over them with his hobnail boots of misery. As a diatribe against the ills of our society it hits hard, but a spoonful of sugar always helps the medicine go down.
A Midlife Crisis: Live!, The Stand, 3-28 Aug (not 15), 1.15 pm
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