How to Disappear Completely and Never Be Found

Published Thursday 29 March 2007 at 13:25 by John Highfield

Just occasionally you find a piece of new writing that really does restore your confidence in the future of theatre.

Fin Kennedy’s How to Disappear Completely and Never Be Found is an exciting, exhilarating, extremely funny and deeply distressing picture of the 21st century’s disposable society, a parable of contemporary consumerism.

Part surreal black comedy, part profound human tragedy, it twists and turns towards a compelling climax that leaves its audience engrossed but exhausted.

The excellent William Ash is Charlie, a young man spiralling out of control following the death of his mother and the discovery that his lifestyle is based on fraud.

As the police come calling, he takes the decision to simply walk out on one life and start another but then discovers that man is made of much more than credit rating and mobile phones.

His guide through this murky moral maze is an equally impressive Richard Bremmer as Mike, a chillingly comic tutor in the deceptively simple art of disappearing. There is fine work too from Sian Brooke, Esther Ruth Elliott and Steve Hansell as the increasingly bizarre selection of characters Charlie meets as he transforms himself into Adam.

The direction by Ellie Jones treats the confines of the studio like a vast canvas, creating memorable drama that never loosens its hold and manages to flip between high comedy and something much darker and disturbing.

It is as good as theatre gets and a reminder that in theatre, as in life, the best things often come in small packages.