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
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.
Paul is a playwright, director, actor, academic, (he has a PhD from the University of East Anglia), teacher and theatre reviewer! His plays include Living with Luke, (UK tour 2016), Play Something, (Edinburgh Festival Fringe/Drayton Arms Theatre, London 2018), , (2019), and now The Miner’s Crow, which won the inaugural Artist’s Pick of the Fringe Award at the first ever Colchester Fringe Festival 2021. In lockdown 2020 he created the audio series Isolation Alan, available on Youtube, and performed online in the Voice Box Festival. He is the founder member of Stage Write, a Colchester based theatre company, and his acting roles include Rupert in How We Love by Annette Brook, first performed at the Vaults Festival 2020 and revived at the Arcola and at Theatre Peckham in 2021. Follow: @stagewrite_
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