Camden Theatre: Company Along the Mile

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The Review - THEATRE by JOSH LOEB
Published: 5 February 2009

Walk a mile in my high heels

COMPANY ALONG THE MILE
Arcola Theatre

GEORGE and Stella look every inch a run-of-the-mill couple as they bicker in a Blackpool hotel.
They’ve known each other long enough to have grown wise to one another’s failings. With such familiarity has come much mutual dependence and resentment. So far, so much like many marriages. The difference, small in light of much that is recognisable, is that George and Stella are not married – and Stella is a man.
The two have been friends since childhood and have lately come to an agreement. They meet once a week and laze about in bed. There is strictly no touching and Stella pays George for his company.
A straight-talking Lancashire lad, George (Dominic Gately) finds his friend’s cross-dressing embarrassing, refusing to join Stella on his evening stroll for fear that someone might spot them. Add tuna sandwiches, an ornamental jewellery stand and a hotel bellboy, and soon this odd couple are contemplating how best to avoid being jailed for murder.
Vaguely reminiscent of one of Joe Orton’s farces, Company Along the Mile is well-acted and well-oiled with jokes.
Humorous ramblings about subjects like feelings provoked by accidentally stepping on snails or what France looks like are so natural it is as if they were bottled in some homely northern pub.
Death is mentioned often in these ramblings, George’s love of obituaries hinting at the oft-cited consolation that the dead live on in their friends’ memories.
Currently mid-tour, this play deserves every success for its funny and surprisingly moving spin on the potentially corny subject of the importance of friendships. Playwright Tom Bidwell is just 24, and on the basis of this outing has a great future ahead of him.
Until February 21
020 7503 1646

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