The Upcoming
  • Culture
    • Art
    • Cinema
      • Movie reviews
      • Film festivals
    • Food & Drinks
      • News & Features
      • Restaurant & bar reviews
      • Interviews & Recipes
    • Literature
    • Music
      • Live music
    • Theatre
    • Shows & On demand
  • Fashion & Lifestyle
    • Accessories
    • Beauty
    • News & Features
    • Shopping & Trends
    • Tips & How-tos
    • Fashion weeks
  • What’s On
    • Art exhibitions
    • Theatre shows
  • Tickets
  • Join us
    • Editorial unit
    • Our writers
    • Join the team
    • Join the mailing list
    • Support us
    • Contact us
  • Interviews
  • Competitions
  • Special events
    • Film festivals
      • Berlin
      • Tribeca
      • Sundance London
      • Cannes
      • Locarno
      • Venice
      • London
      • Toronto
    • Fashion weeks
      • London Fashion Week
      • New York Fashion Week
      • Milan Fashion Week
      • Paris Fashion Week
      • Haute Couture
      • London Fashion Week Men’s
  • Facebook

  • Twitter

  • Instagram

  • YouTube

  • RSS

CultureTheatre

A Boy and His Soul at the Tricycle Theatre

A Boy and His Soul at the Tricycle Theatre | Theatre review
11 September 2013
Tom Yates
Avatar
Tom Yates
11 September 2013

For a few weeks, the accomplished American actor Colman Domingo has brought his “autobiographical solo play with music” from America’s east coast to the sprawl of north west London. It has already been well-received and unsurprisingly so, as this 85-minute whistle-stop tour through 70s and 80s Philadelphia is nothing but a virtuosic triumph. 

Domingo plays himself, now known as Jay, and we open on the messy basement, full of childhood memories (early stereo, vinyl LPs, bikes, toys, etc.) of Jay’s parents’ house. In preparation for a realtor, Jay begins to thumb through his collection of soul music and reflects on the records, their significance to him and his family, and the impact they had on his upbringing. 

The comedy starts rather broadly – karaoke and well-timed air-drumming will always garner a few titters – but once Domingo settles into his groove, A Boy and His Soul becomes an absorbing tale to witness as he lovingly reminisces over the music – “Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye…and Switch!” – and hysterically addresses the audience: “Are you even down with Switch?!”

What makes the performance so engaging is Colman’s ability to vividly portray his family members, each with their idiosyncratic traits and distinct voices. More impressively is his ability to keep everything audible through near-faultless accentuation, so even when he’s racing through the lines relentlessly, switching between characters and trading insults, you never miss a line or gag. Although, at times, the performances threaten to recall Eddie Murphy’s Nutty Professor shtick, the quality of wit inherent in Colman’s script is thankfully on an incomparably higher level.

Certainly, the play has some eccentric (bordering on crude) moments, the apogee undoubtedly being Jay’s visits to a strip club wherein a “crack ho stripper” armed with a “dill pickle” makes “radical gestures with her tongue and the vegetable” while gyrating wildly. But Domingo also delivers some truly poignant and equally memorable moments: a late-night backyard chat with his mother, a series of phone calls in which Jay comes out to his family and a scene in a hospital ward after Jay’s father’s diet of chicken fried “hard in lard” catches up with him.

Aided superbly by perfect musical direction and effective lighting, that both create genuine moments of displacement whenever the story flicks back from the imagined settings to the contemporary basement location. Colman is clearly having the time of his life, and you will too.

★★★★★

Tom Yates

A Boy and His Soul is at the Tricycle Theatre until 21st September 2013.

Watch the trailer for A Boy and His Soul here:

Related Itemsreview

More in Theatre

Swimming Home: An immersive online experience

★★★★★
Selina Begum
Read More

Live Lab at The Yard Theatre: An interview with associate director Cheryl Gallagher

Mersa Auda
Read More

We Still Fax at ANTS Theatre Online

★★★★★
Samuel Nicholls
Read More

We Ask These Questions of Everybody: An interview with Amble Skuse and Toria Banks

Mersa Auda
Read More

Public Domain at Southwark Playhouse

★★★★★
Michael Higgs
Read More

Unlimited Festival at the Southbank Centre: Centre stage for diversity

★★★★★
James Humphrey
Read More

RSC Next Generation: Young Bloods proves Shakespeare is timeless

Brooke Snowe
Read More

An interview with Ifrah Ismael: Tales from the Front Line and other stories

Selina Begum
Read More

A Livestream with David Bedella at Crazy Coqs Online

★★★★★
Regan Harle
Read More
Scroll for more
Tap
  • Popular

  • Latest

  • TOP PICKS

  • We Still Fax at ANTS Theatre Online
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • Live Lab at The Yard Theatre: An interview with associate director Cheryl Gallagher
    Theatre
  • Arlo Parks – Collapsed in Sunbeams
    ★★★★★
    Album review
  • The Capote Tapes
    ★★★★★
    Cinema
  • The Dig
    ★★★★★
    Cinema
  • Crobar: Music When the Lights Go Out
    ★★★★★
    Cinema
  • Green stars, two female chefs at the top and a controversially quick award: This is 2021 UK Michelin Guide during the pandemic
    Food & Drinks
  • Assassins: Exclusive new clip
    Cinema
  • Identifying Features
    ★★★★★
    Uncategorised
  • Schemers
    ★★★★★
    Cinema
  • Green stars, two female chefs at the top and a controversially quick award: This is 2021 UK Michelin Guide during the pandemic
    Food & Drinks
  • Identifying Features
    ★★★★★
    Uncategorised
  • Arlo Parks – Collapsed in Sunbeams
    ★★★★★
    Album review
  • Identifying Features
    ★★★★★
    Cinema
  • We Still Fax at ANTS Theatre Online
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
The Upcoming
Pages
  • Contact us
  • Join mailing list
  • Join us
  • Our London food map
  • Our writers
  • Support us
  • What, when, why

Copyright © 2011-2020 FL Media

Snoop Dogg headlines at Bestival 2013 | Live review
Jake Bugg at the Roundhouse | Live review