Review: IT'S HEADED STRAIGHT TOWARDS US, Park Theatre

Gary Savage and Hugh Delavois are shooting a film in Iceland when an avalanche isolates them with their runner Leela. Set against the dangers of working on location, Hollywood hasbeen and the co-star who never really quite made it start bickering. The long-time rivals and former drama school frenemies are relentlessly petty while Leela tries to get them to cooperate. Their future is on the line on many levels; will they be able to survive between alarming seismology lessons and lowbrow jabs?

Samuel West and Rufus Hound return to the stage in a bonkers comedy penned by Adrian Edmondson and Nigel Planer.

It’s tough humour, not always politically correct nor consistently hilarious. All aspects of their personal lives and careers are ammunition: on-set misdemeanours, past scuffles, sexual escapades - everything. It’s somewhat of a potboiler for the easily pleased punters and industry professionals; funny, but far from a knee-slapper and rather insulated in its genre of jokes. Their punches are ruthless and the piece is deliciously self-referential, though its real strength lies its unexploited dark side.

Gary can’t forget his sides from old jobs, but slips into frightening blackouts that leave him unaware of where he is and what he’s doing. This becomes another source for comically bitter remarks, as does his light harassment of the crew and upfront alcoholism. It starts as funny-haha and ends as funny-weird. As for Hugh, the cobbling gear he uses as a relaxation method is used against him, as is his insecurity about his sexuality. Gen-Z Leela, who’s turning 21 that day, is - as one expects from this sort of project - the token young person whose behaviour isn't understood by her elders and whose beliefs low-key turn into an additional thing they mock.

It’s clear that it’s all built to be clean fun, but it grows slightly tedious quickly here in there. The second act is marginally more interesting: the duo mellow a bit and finally address some of the darkness before discarding it in favour of more arguing. It surprisingly works. While the industry-based banter tends to get heavy and repetitive with briefly tone-deaf observations, it shows an amusing slice of the biz. If anything, it’s a further reminder of how catty the entertainment circles can be.

West and Hound are an unquestionable treat. Their clockwork comedic timing combines with the excellent sarcasm of the text in a tight game of allegorical ping-pong refereed by Nenda Neururer. She herds the two actors like cats, dodging the dashes of sexism and sprinkles of problematic with ease, sticking out among the vain, old-fashioned gags as she should. Kavanaugh’s direction is visually engaging and never dull, highlighting some of the structural moments in the script like the simultaneous dialogue.

The playwrights toe the line, pushing the boundaries of properness to the point that one wonders if now is the right moment for a play of this kind. While the entertainment business keeps imploding, the piece refuses to properly utilise its thematic plotlines as full-on satire. All in all, it’s a quirky vanity project with a few comic gems and too many unwieldy junctures.

It's Headed Straight Towards Us runs at the Park Theatre until 21 October.

Photo credit: Pamela Raith

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