Le Grand Mort

A VERY bizarre two handed play this, running 90 minutes without an interval - as is the fashion these days!

Two guys pick each other up in a bar and one invites the other to dinner that evening for an intimate chat but nothing more. A cat and mouse game ensues in an effective practical stainless steel kitchen involving a sharp kitchen knife.

There is a lot of frank talk of death, necrophilia, strong language and full frontal male nudity - not Julian Clary! Certainly not for the faint hearted!

Julian Clary gives a rather nervous, tentative performance in only the plays third performance, I think. It's a difficult role though - I am not sure he or the audience got a handle on it. He has the stage to himself for the first half hour with a long monologue and having to cook a meal at the same time - it seemed stilted and awkward.

A strange piece, but on the whole well performed and directed.

Yes, I do sound contradictory don't I!

I think the writing is rather stilted and odd. Part of Julian Clary's opening monologue is in rhyme which is then subsequently dropped. It's rather bizarre. I think the actors make a decent fist of it on the whole (no pun intended!)

I don't think Tom Wicker in the Stage liked it.

www.thestage.co.uk/reviews/2017/le-grand-mort-starring-julian-clary-review-trafalgar-studios-london/

Personally, I will search high and low for an opportunity to use the word "wankiness".

All I saw in the Stage review were the words 'vigorously thrusting' before it conked out on me. Maybe it's for the best!

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Lol!

This is a very odd 'play.' I think Julian now seems very relaxed in the role and I think he played it well. He is, more or less, playing himself and the first half hour is totally solo, where he almost does a scripted, and toned-down, version of his stand up but in verse and whilst cooking pasta alla puttanesca at the same time! The verse then gets dropped and in comes his cocky Liverpudlian date.

There are some very funny lines but it wanders off in all sorts of directions, touching on incest and a complete obsession with necrophilia.

Basically the play is a mess and goes nowhere but I enjoyed the performances. Julian has a huge amount of lines to learn and James Nelson-Joyce is a charismatic actor (and very easy on the eye.)

Well. This play is a bit of a mess, it heads all over the place without really going anywhere. Although Julian's mother sounds a bit of a fright.

Julian plays . . well . . Julian although he does cleverly begin the show playing in rhyme like he was hosting the 2001 Eurovision Song Contest which was nice. I didn't get much menace from him but he is very charismatic and I'd actually like to see him in another play. He'd be terrific in a restoration comedy or something of that ilk. He is marvellous at the double entendres though, as you would expect. He doesn't chop his own onions though.

James Nelson-Joyce comes out of the show best as the cocky date (in more ways than one), he is able to easily switch between the characters moods in a way that does make you rather intrigued by him and what he might do. I do have to admit though that when he took his clothes off, my mind did drift from the play as he has the most wonderful physique that I kept getting distracted. Seriously it was a bit of a disappointment when the clothes went back on and the play continued.

I do hope they give a bonus to the person who has to keep that kitchen looking shiny every night too. The spray cleaner (from Wilko no less) they must go through.

I saw this Friday.

It didn't get universal 2 Stars, in fact it got 1 star in the Daily Mail from our old friend The Rev Quents, however his review is a bit like Book of Mormon, where it set his morality alarm off, by which I mean it had graphic talk of homosexuality, necrophilia and a crucifix in the set  - however I agree, with the other reviews and Wickedgrin when he says 'bizarre' this is a 2 star. But I do love Julian Clary as a individual.