The Stage

Pay as You Go

Published Monday 26 July 2010 at 14:23 by Catherine Usher

Frequently in fringe theatre, a play’s script can disappoint and the courageous work of an enthusiastic cast can be undermined by a mediocre story.

Such is the case with Pay As You Go, a predictable and melodramatic tale about the unspectacular decline of an excruciatingly uninspiring man.

Marc Geoffrey in the central role of mobile phone salesman Mark is fairly miserable and dissatisfied from the off, displaying the unattractive qualities of self-pity, resentment and contempt. He hates his entire life and everybody in it, but so would anyone living such a cliched existence.

The opening portrayal of the woman buying her son a phone, inexplicably fascinated by the fact that one of the phone’s few features is a radio, is a case in point. Nobody talks like that, banging on about how it reminds her of watching Top of the Pops in her youth. “As a family”. It sounds like a bad day at the Queen Vic.

In fact, the way women are portrayed throughout the play is offensive. Wife Caroline (Helen Worsley) would rather risk a young woman’s life than report her wayward son to the police, while work experience girl Emma (Leona O’Sullivan) flirts mercilessly with a married man and later turns around and tells him “I didn’t actually mean it”.

However, there are two actors that go a long way to repairing the damage. Initially repellent and ultimately sad, Richard Aloi brings realism and depth to the role of Mark’s friend Simon. He and Mac Elsey as the insightful homeless man John are the standout performances and show what a talented actor can do with limited material.