PLAY REVIEW: Double Act ★★★★

If you had one day left to live your life, how would you go about your day?

In Nick Hyde’s Double Act, we see that final day of our protagonist, split over four timestamps in a very brechtian nature, and told in the spirit of two performers on stage, allowing us to experience the inner thoughts that run through our heads, even at the daunting moments of our lives and divisive decisions; in the case of our protagonist, this comes with bumping into an old school friend, confronting a train warden, or having their last supper with an old flame.

With speech and characters split between Nick Hyde and Oliver Maynard, the idea to showcase this day through an unnamed character really allows us to recognise ourselves in moments of despair, where we can almost at times see ourselves in some of these situations, and mirroring the actions of those we see on stage, I mean let’s be honest, we have all at one point in our lives wanted to order a towerful of fast food burgers, or take out all our money at the bank to feel in our hands what that would be like, right? 

What Hyde and Maynard convey so powerfully is the sense that we really are watching just one character on stage; the stumbling over each others sentences at the start, to using the on stage microphones to inhibit the inner voices, both of these come so naturally and you become instantly immersed with the dialogue and the way it is spoken. Director Jef Hall-Flavin has done a meticulous job in guiding us through this man’s day with great detail in homing in the thought that we are watching just one character split into two bodies, as facial expressions and body language is key to the show’s success.

As the day progresses, and we are forced to reflect on ourselves very cleverly thanks to Christophe Eynde’s set design, Holly Ellis’ lighting becomes more vital than anything we have come to see, encompassing the man’s emotional state and centering on what becomes the most powerful message; Double Act is a vital piece of theatre, which must be watched live.

Double Act runs at The Southwark Playhouse Borough until Saturday 5th April 2025.