EDINBURGH 2023: Review: CAN'T WAIT TO LEAVE, The Space @ Surgeons' Hall

Ryan is a bisexual 19-year-old dropout who’s just moved to London following his brother’s advice. He hates it. He despises his job, the city, and feels constantly alienated by a world that doesn’t understand him. It doesn’t help that he has no friends and his relationship with his family has become increasingly more difficult. As Ryan waits to be seen by a doctor in A&E, he traces his steps to figure out what his next one is. 

Written and directed by Stephen Leach, it’s a window into toxic sexual fantasies and the societal clash between expectation and reality. Ryan watches on as everybody moves on, lost and disillusioned, with a deep feeling of dissatisfaction and an intense depressive bout. Zach Hawkins does incredible work with Ryan’s exuberant resignation. He waltzes through the flowing stream of consciousness with ease, handling the final shift in tone with depth and reflection.

A relentless sense of abandonment accompanies the monologue, while self-destruction seeps into the cracks made by Ryan’s repressed anger. The piece is surprisingly amusing, which mostly comes from Hawkins’s tongue-in-cheek attitude and pitch black cynicism to the character’s dismal life. From dingy flats to predatory older men, Can’t Wait To Leave is a thought-provoking analysis of finding the courage to start again.

Can't Wait To Leave runs at theSpace @ Surgeons' Hall until 12 August.

To post a comment, you must register and login.