REVIEW: Sean and Daro Flake It 'Til They Make It, Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh Fringe ✭✭✭✭

Paul T Davies reviews Sean and Daro Flake It 'Til They Make It now playing at the Traverse Theatre as part of the Edinburgh Fringe.

Cameron Fulton and Sean Connor. Photo: Mihaela Bodlovic Sean and Daro Flake it 'Til They Make it

Traverse Theatre Edinburgh Festival Fringe

8 August 2023

4  Stars

Book Tickets

A beautiful comedy by Laurie Motherwell, the play explores male friendship and vulnerability through lifelong friends Sean and Daro. Sean, who we meet at his mother's funeral, is a university dropout, straight-laced and fragile.

Cameron Fulton and Sean Connor. Photo: Mihaela Bodlovic

By contrast, Daro, teeming with misplaced business 'acumen', devises a foolproof money-making scheme. They buy a clapped-out ice cream van and have a heady summer of success until winter brings a harsh reality.

It works so successfully because of the performers, their friendship seems genuine and lived. Sean Connor as Sean is movingly broken, fearful of the next steps, but joyful when letting go. Cameron Fulton is wonderfully cheeky as Daro, a glint in his eye revealing a constant naughtiness. Yet he is the strength, and when the ice cream van follows mourners into a cemetery, Daro's belief that ice cream can be a balm and a comfort plays off beautifully.

Sean Connor and Cameron Fulton. Photo: Mihaela Bodlovic

There are many threats to the lads, not least muggers and the repayment of the loan for the van. But they never harden into tragedy, which perhaps they would have a few years ago. Post-pandemic, hope and survival are the keys to the future, and this talented pair convince us of that in a play and production that zings and excites like the chimes of an ice cream van.