He Wears it Well

Greenside Riddles Court, Edinburgh Fringe

3 Stars Book Tickets

This production by the Pin Collective explores the world of Archie, a premiership league footballer who is in the closet. When he begins a relationship with games designer Stephen, the tensions between keeping it secret and telling the world begin to increase. As they get into Lord of the Rings and Dungeon and Dragons, the play interestingly explores identify and adopting personas and roles. The play is well performed by L T Hewitt as Archie, nervous energy and vulnerability combined with confidence on the pitch, and Nicholas Dowton Copper as Stephen, geeky and supportive. They also play other roles, and I feel differentiation between characters could have been more defined here. The script doesn't raise the stakes high enough, I didn't feel that Archie really had everything to lose. It also reached a perfect ending and then carried on with another, unnecessary scene. But it's heart is totally in the right place, the relationship tender and supportive and gives the Fringe a good Heartstopper moment.