This was, 9 years ago, the first show I saw John-Luke Roberts do, back at my second ARGCOMFEST in 2015. I was captivated then, and I remain so now. What a thrill to be able to see it again.
It’s also my first show of the “proper” Fringe visit this year! We’re so back.
I never actually saw the finished product (one of the few downsides of exclusively seeing previews for many years), so it’s hard to say exactly when, but a lot has changed from what I remember. And a lot has been remembered now that I had forgotten. That’s quite exciting, really. No one, this time, had to draw a monobrow on him whilst he sang Total Eclipse Of The Heart.
I remember a feeling of genuine discomfort and dare I say terror from 2015, and… I mean, I wasn’t wrong. Things are maybe different now, being more familiar with Roberts’ work, and also having just expanded more my understanding and enjoyment of comedy to the more uncomfortable, but still. The character of Roberts’ dad is all-encompassing, and does seem to possess him quite sincerely - it wouldn’t surprise me if it were something like a fugue state to him. He barks at you to apologise, insults you, belittles you. It’s quite something.
I can’t speak for most of the others, but the version presented today for John-Luke-apalooza does sound like it has had its ending dramatically altered in the present day. It clearly held a lot of weight to Roberts at the time, this show, and the shift from him fully turning on himself in the original to demonstrating more kindness to himself now, without allowing for the pretence that maybe his father wasn’t so bad or maybe they were alike, makes this a vital recontextualising of an already complex piece.