Lost Monsters

Everyman, Liverpool
May 22 – June 13

Author: Laurence Wilson
Director: Matt Wilde
Producer: Everyman Playhouse
Cast Includes:  Joe McGann, Kevin Trainor, Nick Moss, Rebecca Ryan

Running Time 2 hrs 20 mins

In short, from first to last, Lost Monsters is an intriguing, beguiling, magical delight that should be cheered and applauded to the rafters, and it’s not only the acting, which in itself is worthy of a review on its own, but the set; an ordinary room on the surface that conceals a mish-mash of oddities in each and every cupboard and drawer that all add to the sense of the surreal that makes this play such a winner.

A quirky story of three disparate characters breaking into a house cut off from the world by a motorway, owned by Richard (McGann), who has enough food to survive everything from a Swine Flu epidemic to Nuclear Holocaust, there is a sense of depth and ordinariness about the whole thing that is at once comforting and deeply unsettling as  the beautifully composed dialogue never seems strained or difficult to relate to as the lighting evokes images of distant dreams that eventually intermingle with half-forgotten nightmares.

Nick Moss as the paranoid Mickey is powerful in his role, stalking the stage with great menace and intimidation. Joe McGann is his polar opposite, delivering a performance of assured calm amidst a turbulent sea of uncertainty and Rebecca Ryan as Sian is a million miles away from her Shameless character, Debbie Gallagher, in her composed understatement.

Yet it is Kevin Trainor’s energy in the role of near-autistic Jonsey that drives the whole thing along, delivering his streams of facts as though reading from an encyclopaedia, whilst hurtling about the stage with gusto until the unexpected, underlying cause of his problem is revealed.

Occasionally, just occasionally, a new play comes along that delights at every turn and Laurence Wilson has certainly delivered at only his second attempt.

Chris High

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