We are in the men’s toilets of a pub. Such a setting undoubtedly has leaps of potential for comedy and drama and that is exactly what we are gifted by this seventy-minute show. Writers and performers Gabriel Fogarty-Graveson and Felix Grainger have enjoyed previous success with Sniff.
The play has run at both Theatre 503 as well as the Jack Studio Theatre. It now arrives at Park Theatre, forming part of the venue’s signature double bill series alongside Philippa Lawford’s Cold Water.
You know that moment whereby you simply seek to pee in private and enjoy some respite from socialising? Then you have some guy initiate conversation at the least desirable time? Such is the plight inflicted on Alex (Grainger), who is about to propose to his girlfriend. Liam (Fogarty-Graveson) seems adamant to have a conversation. What begins as banter soon morphs into bickering as the vastly opposing worlds of our dual protagonists completely clash.
Alex is in advertising and on the surface has it all. As he goes on to reveal, however, this is a man wreaked with guilt for obtaining his apparently glittering career through nepotism. In contrast, Liam is the more confident of the two, or so it would appear. Beneath the bravado, we are presented with a tortured, lonely man who has succumbed to a gambling addiction. Nothing is quite what it seems here, with the writer successfully subverting expectations throughout.
At one moment laughing and at the next feeling sobered by the harsh realities exposed by the play, we are constantly kept on our toes. This is facilitated by deft direction courtesy of Ben Purkiss alongside stellar, assured performances.
With copious offerings of dark humour, Sniff makes for a pleasingly memorable and refreshingly original one act play that both provokes thought while prompting much in the way of laughter. It is no mean feat to achieve both, and it is clear the creatives concerned have promising futures ahead of them. A great example of new writing.
Sniff is at Park Theatre until 25 May 2024
