Review: HIGH RIDIN’ - at the King’s Head Theatre

Stuart King 14 September, 2018, 15:32

High Ridin' High Ridin’ bills itself as an unlikely, heart-warming, gay, comedic, love story and for the most part it’s exactly that.

The neatly designed, dilapidated stage (by Fin Redshaw), is populated with three characters who are fractious yet gradually endear themselves both to each other and the audience.

Through the chatty reveal, we learn that formerly incarcerated-for-GHB Stan (Tom Michael Blyth) is gay, anti-religious, and has issues as a result of being cruelly dubbed ‘the runt of the litter of one’ by his father. Go figure!

Stan identifies and picks-up another lost soul in the form of Blackpool-bound hitchhiker Ronnie (an excellent, naturalistic turn from newly graduated Chi-Cho Tche), and has brought him back to his run-down, dilapidated moors pile (a legacy from his recently deceased father) for a night of debauchery. Rampancy however, hasn’t materialised largely due to Stan’s protective instincts towards Ronnie when it becomes apparent that he is inebriated with narcotics.

Linda Beckett’s Aunt Ivy is all northern propriety, sanctimonious irritation and devious materialism. She is first caught divesting her late brother’s home of its ormolu nick-nacks, but subsequently gravitates towards a more tempered and measured understanding of human frailty. At one point, her religious piety facilitates a simple yet profound one phrase comment about the origin of molecules, which stops Stan (and all who hear it) in their smug, scientific tracks. It’s almost like a contribution from an anti-matter Alan Bennett.

The cast are required to deliver a few clunky phrases in the second half of the play, but these are easily outweighed by some absolute gems in the first half.

For anyone concerned about the possibility, there is a complete absence of gratuitous sex and nudity. The air is however populated with a smattering of choice venomous expletives. But as the play proceeds, a reasoned kindness and sense is gently introduced that is genuinely affecting.

The short run ends on Sat 22nd Sept.

Recommended.