Camden Fringe Review: Mates, ★★★★½

No time to settle into our seats, the lights plunge, the wolf howls begin, and we are in the hands of the Mates. An oozingly American voiceover eases us into every adventure film cliché: wolf boy “makes his enemy tremble” and fights, “till every drop of lunar energy is drained”.

But we soon learn that the wolf boy days are over and Max (Joseph Ollman) needs the team to reconnect, after many years apart, and create a play. The four old friends find that having the venue, tickets sold and a wealthy benefactor sorted doesn’t mean much without an actual play to put on. As the whiteboard has more and more ideas scribbled on it, none can agree which should become the focus. JJ (Kieran Urquhart) wants something “better than cirque de soleil”, Cosmo (Jack Staddon) is full of angst and wants to heal the world. Luke (Ciaran Duce) has fallen for online conspiracies and wants to expose them all. Each of their proposals has the same flaw: none include a plot or characters.

As we watch the friends grapple with their choices and attempt to create something genuinely new, the play indulges in exaggeration and takes each concept to its logical extreme and beyond. Each idea, no matter how ridiculous, is played out by the team in all earnestness. The overall cohesive structure holds well, as we move from the rehearsal room to various attempted versions of the play, light and sound cues ensure we know which is “reality” and which is a play-within-a-play. Each genre is different, so each genre is able to bring its own distinct humour. This is a meta comedy with grounding in reality. The team of four really have been friends for ten years and they really did work to write the play together.

The final and possibly most ridiculous idea for a play is Banana Island. Here though, the true strength of the overall play shines through. Alongside the fiercely well-constructed and agile comedy, we have moments of real sympathy and emotion between the friends. Relationship troubles, career woes and self-doubt all emerge. The campfire may be represented by a ridiculous prop, the premise of them all arriving at the island may be ludicrous, but the emotion is heartfelt and real. Somehow, over an hour of mayhem and chaos, we have really come to care about these four men and what they mean to each other. We also see how they care for each other.

Mates is clever because at the same time as telling several plays within the play, in a highly amusing fashion, it has also told us a story within a story. We have been presented on stage with the story of Max, JJ, Cosmo and Luke. But underneath, the real life friendship tale of Ciaran Duce, Joseph Ollman, Jack Staddon and Kieran Urquhart shines brightly.

Read our interview with the team here.

[Thank you to the Four Face Theatre who provided a gifted ticket for an honest review.]