Camden Fringe Review: Inside The M25 @ Sheephaven Bay

Lindsey
By Lindsey Last edited 163 months ago
Camden Fringe Review: Inside The M25 @ Sheephaven Bay

InsideM25.jpg A new addition to the Camden Fringe fold, The Sheephaven Bay is a lively Irish pub with a popular line in sausage sandwiches, off Arlington Road. Its back room has been transformed into a bijou performance space with a gaggle of freeform stools and carefully rigged blackout. It even ticks the box that demands fringe venues get very hot - you have been warned.

It's ideal for a 2 man spoken word show like Inside the M25. Gary From Leeds and Richard Purnell sport tourist shop London t-shirts and take turns gazing on iconic images of our capital whilst the other holds forth on their experiences of London, morphing seamlessly into poems.

Both are London migrants: Richard an Essex Exile and Gary... well, from Leeds. Richard's story follows his flat moves commenting on the cruel street lights of the Newington Estate, the curse of Clapham beauty, the demise of Brixton Woolworths and the relative suburbia of Streatham. Gary's chucked the Lonely Planet Guide out and is looking for romance in and with the city. His lyricism's more abstract, contemptuous of marketeer speak, hacked off with the meat markets and wondering why Jesus would be living in Walworth. Gary fears the No. 12 bendy bus is the vengeful product of a wronged transport planner. Richard's paen to the nightbus strikes a universal chord with the audience, as the imaginary sick rolls down the deck.

Pairing up, the boys take first lines from the audience, penned on 'The Last Human in London' to considerably fine random effect and their climactic joint recitation of lines overheard, punctuated with the insistent refrain of 'wanna bag?' is the patter of London life you hear everyday, distilled. Readers, this show will chime with you. Turn your phone off, go and listen to it.

Inside the M25: A user's guide is on at Sheephaven Bay, 2 Mornington Street, NW1 Friday 6th and Saturday 7th at 9pm. The Camden Fringe runs until 29th August.

Last Updated 06 August 2010