As the song said, we’re all living for the weekend, but for one Northern lad named Sonny, it’s six o’clock that can’t come quick enough, a chance to escape the worker bees at his call centre and hit the dancefloor of a local club. Philip Stokes Lash: A Pulsating New Play About Going Out Out comes to the Pleasance Courtyard this Edinburgh Fringe.
Fresh from the success of last year’s Jesus, Jane, Mother & Me (which is also playing at Pleasance Courtyard this year), Stokes brings us a new solo play that examines the role of lad culture in a post-pandemic world.
This hugely engaging solo monologue set to the pulsating beats of dance music captivates the audience from the very start, while Stokes’ writing keeps us guessing as to what might be coming next. Centred on one night out, it presents Sonny as a real lad’s lad – but a loveable one. The hyper-masculinity masks a deeper desire within Sonny, and the cocaine hidden in his sock simply represents a desire to enjoy the night.
Lash is performed by Jack Stokes, who took home the Best Solo Performance Award last year for Jesus, Jane, Mother & Me, and delivers another tour-de-force performance here. Stokes oozes masculinity, engaging with the audience as they take their seats, by the time the lights go down, we are in no doubt what this character is all about.
It’s fast paced, but Stokes never misses a beat. The pace and tempo constantly fluctuates, like the rhythm of the music, and as Sonny laments “the bleakness of my life” it’s impossible not to feel charmed and enamoured by the youth that’s wasting their youth right in front of us.
Lash takes aim at the toxic masculinity culture; figures like the abhorrent Andrew Tate are skewered, as are misogyny and homophobia, and coupled with the easy going comedy, this laddish night out feels like a safe space.
As a monologue, this play manages to recreate the euphoric feeling felt on the dancefloor of a nightclub; the music, words and atmospheric lighting from Craig Lomas all combine into this truly arresting piece of theatre.
Lash is undoubtedly the perfect late night Fringe show, part gig and part theatre, but wholly entertaining. But it is it’s star, Jack Stokes, that makes this worth seeing; an incredibly talented actor on an intimate fringe stage – worth staying in for.
