Tuesday 8 May 2018



“Cogito Ergo Bum” by Ian Sheard & Jonathan Davies
Nottingham New Theatre.
Two young men pursue a lifelong dream of winning a Battle of the Bands competition, producing the seminal 1990s album, and getting invited onto Top of the Pops. Our Brit-Pop duo though must overcome the hurdle of a rival band that’s much better than them, who can sing and actually play their instruments, as well as a devilishly tempting offer !
Being a completely new piece of theatre written by Ian and Jonathan, you’re going into this with a blank canvas as to what to expect but this is a very cleverly scripted piece of comedy which is genuinely funny.
The two main characters Tony (Jack Lahiff) and Mike (Sam Morris) are like a combined morphing of Rik Mayall and Ade Edmondson's "Bottom" characters, Beavis & Butthead and The Inbetweeners. I'm not sure if any of these comedy shows were in the minds of Ian and Jonathan at the time but here we have two more characters who I could see working well in a sit com style.
The two girl characters Mel (Prue Sparkes - who makes s fine debut at NNT) and Viola (Darcey Graham) are well matched in their opposite traits to the boys.
Also making their debut for NNT is Zendell Crichlow as Daemon. A fun and mischievous character with just the right amount of camp.
Directed by Jonathan, assisted by Ian and Produced by Sophie Curtis, this trio created a witty piece of theatre which also shows that the references within the script were well researched and worked into the flow of the script. "I Want You Back" by Bananarama on the album "Wow" - Track 10 - cleverly written in to cause a different reaction from Viola when spurted out by Tony. I love a clever script.
Part of The Fringe Season at NNT and also entered into the National Student Drama Festival, I've a feeling that this, among the other entries from NNT, will be very popular; especially if the audience reaction tonight was anything to go by.
And you know what, the end song "Cogito Ergo Bum" is also a really catchy tune; I couldn't get it out on my head all the way back home. Thanks lads!

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