Murky mirth: The Double Act [Alex Brenner]

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MARK Jagasia’s dark comedy, The Double Act, recalls a time when comics were bold and brash and didn’t worry about “political correctness”.

Billy Bash (Nigel Betts) is proud to be known as “Britain’s Third Most Offensive Comedian” and has refused to change with the times. Why would he? He continues to have a legion of fans who come to his shows.

Dressed in a tight, three-piece white suit, he’s a straight-talking northerner from Barnsley, whose racist, sexist and homophobic gags come thick and fast.

Billy is in the rundown seaside resort of Saltmouth for a gig. He drops in to visit his estranged ex-partner, Clifford Biddle (Nigel Cooke), the other half of a 1980s double act.

Cliff lives a closeted existence in a shabby maisonette with a pet snake, who never appears. Clearly unhinged, Cliff is determined to join Billy for a one-off reunion show, and reprises his impersonations of Kate Bush and Noddy in the living room. But Billy, the self-proclaimed “messiah of mirth”, is not impressed.

Over the course of an afternoon, they trawl through their chequered past. Just the mention of Jimmy Savile reminds us of the murkier side of British show-business.

Cliff claims that Billy, in a cocaine-fuelled incident involving an air rifle, left him blind in one eye and cut short his career. Billy points out he went solo after Cliff went to prison – you’ll have to see the play to discover why.

Gulliver (Edward Hogg), Cliff’s enigmatic lodger, claims to be a fan of the pair. But he has ulterior motives for setting the cat (or snake) among the pigeons.

Although overstuffed with gags, the double-act dynamic is cleverly explored in Oscar Pearce’s nimble production. Jagasia’s two unsavoury characters are oddly compelling and the performances are top-notch.

until February 22
arcolatheatre.com/