Flynch, Looking

Flynch, Looking by Clout is simply astonishing. This tender story of a grown up child unable to deal with adult life and the attendant disillusionment, is moving and beautifully staged. James Flynch has been brutally dumped by his girlfriend and seeks relief in a dingy hotel by the sea, with somehow unexpected consequences.

It is Clout’s ability to evoke images and create vivid worlds that lends the play the immersive atmosphere of a film. “Rooms become oceans”, reads the poster of the show, and it’s true.

This Jacque Lecoq trained company has made physicality the central element of their work, and it is mainly through the body that Flynch’s story is narrated. The five actors wriggle, dance, run and roll on the stage while impersonating dreams, nightmares, even a bedside table lamp. They give life to grotesque and delightfully absurd scenes, which the audience watch with wide-opened eyes, enchanted like a child’s.

Flynch, Looking is a perfect example of astounding theatre done with a very low budget, but the story and the performance are so convincing and compassionate  that they really don’t need anything else.

This poignant story, interspersed with funny moments is a strong antidote to the Fringe's disease of stand up. Clout is a promising company and their play is going to linger in the memory long after the lights go down.