CLARKSTON | TRAFALGAR THEATRE, LONDON
★★★
“Mollica’s performance makes Clarkston far more than it deserves to be…”
Ruaridh Mollica is a star in the making. It’s just been announced he has won the role of Tommy Maximoff in the Disney+ WandaVision spin off VisionQuest, his recent film Sebastian saw him nominated for a British Independent Film Award, while, last year, Screen International heralded him a ‘Rising Star’. In Clarkston, there’s a rare chance to see him on stage in London’s West End, demonstrating just why he’s attracting so much industry attention.
Set in small town America, Clarkston is a coming of age tale. First love, forbidden attraction, a terminally ill young man coming to terms with a curtailed life, a dysfunctional mother and son relationship, mental health issues, drug addiction and failure all provide it’s life-force, making it a miserabilist’s dream. Just how many spanners can fate throw into the works as Chris tries to better himself and escape his life as a shelf-stacker at his local CostCo warehouse.
On paper, however, it’s Jake, new to town and to CostCo, who is the main protagonist of the piece. Diagnosed with Huntington’s and already finding his attacks of chorea becoming ever more frequent and debilitating, he’s on a lone quest to trace his ancestry while coming to terms with the knowledge he’ll be dead by 30. When he’s teamed with Chris to keep the stock flowing, an unlikely and uneasy friendship of mutual dependency develops. There follows an emotional, if predictable and at times frustrating story of lost souls finding each other.
Together Heartstopper’s Locke and Mollica share an electric chemistry over what is at times a frustrating 95 minutes. Locke surprises as Jack, sensitively bringing out the pain and helplessness of his condition while resigned to what the future holds. Mollica doesn’t so much live and breathe his role as inhabit it with passionate conviction. It’s an outstanding, beautifully pitched performance that makes the play more than it should be and marks him as one to watch.
Completing the cast Sophie Melville as Jake’s estranged mother, Trisha, balances the character’s abusive nature while retaining a degree of vulnerability in what is, at times, an overly-intense performance.
Tenderly directed by Jack Serio and with a set design by Milla Clarke that ensures both Mollica and Locke put in physical shifts, the decision to perform the piece in the round, with audience members on stage, does smack of unnecessary gimmickry.
Samuel D Hunter’s script, while tight and fluid, too often falls back on overused tropes often found in gay love stories and feels dated for that. There’s nothing really new to see here… other than the arrival of an exciting new talent.
Ends 22 November. Tickets here.
