TOAST/KEN AND STEVE | LIVE REVIEW
by Velvet Trumpet, Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff, Wed 30 July
Toast, a Talking Heads-style monologue charting one man’s love affair with, well, toast, gives us the beginning, middle, and eventual end, of a relationship telescoped into a twenty minute vignette. Thomas Jones plays Michael, a stock neurotic character straight out of a sixties kitchen sink drama, ruminating on the failure of his last relationship and examining his life through the medium of toast. It’s an unusual conceit, and the twenty-odd minutes of the production take it about as far as will can go.
Ken and Steve is a more anarchic affair, which feels less scripted, less dramatic, but funnier. Thomas Jones reappears as Ken, a frustrated, angry Welshman, haranguing everyone he confronts: from his partner Steve (as he unsuccessfully tries to narrate the story of their walk from London to Swansea) to the audience and, finally, the people of Wales for their indifference and rudeness.
In contrast to his earlier, wordier performance, Jones shows a real aptitude for physical comedy. With the character of Ken he has more to play with, so to speak, and the ebullience which he brings to the role is palpable. Nikolai Ribnikov’s Steve is a more measured character, functioning as a foil to the manic enthusiasm of Ken.
What stopped this piece from turning into a great piece of comic theatre was the lack of structure. Ken’s rants were so uncontrolled that they soon felt like a sort of endurance test for both the audience and the performer. Once Steve left the stage there was no contrast with Ken’s mania – in a two-hander like this it’s the dynamic between the two characters that creates the laughs. Without that conflict the comic tension soon ebbed.
Nikolai Ribnikov and Thomas Jones are both talented performers, and there’s much to like here, but the writing didn’t quite match up to the energy they brought to their performances. There were plenty of jokes, a snigger here, a chuckle there, but there was nothing that merited a full-on belly laugh, and that’s what they need to be aiming for.
words DAVID GRIFFITHS