Gary: a Love Story @ 24:7 Festival

With all the talk of this perhaps being 24:7’s final outing it has been easy to forget that we still had this year’s festival to enjoy. Taking place in its new home at the Martin Harris centre, the 2015 instalment boasted four plays – including Gary: a Love Story, from writer James Harker.

The play is told in retrospect, as Gary’s older brother Andrew (Reuben Johnson) looks back on the troubled life of his wayward sibling and attempts to make sense of it. It is a classic case of two brothers’ lives diverging along slightly different paths, with one achieving success while the other struggles.

Starting in childhood, Andrew begins by recounting happier days when all Gary (Craig Morris) needed was his stuffed Barney Rubble toy. But, as the two get older, things run less smoothly for Gary. He falls in with the wrong crowd at school, finds that educational achievement doesn’t come as easily as it does for Andrew, and ends up seeking solace in drugs and petty crime. Things spiral downwards from there, and soon the two find themselves living in totally different worlds, the easy rapport of their youth all used up.

Johnson and Morris are superb as the brothers, with Morris exuding at first naïve charm and then later a menacing intensity. Johnson, for his part, puts in a seriously impressive performance, carrying the whole play along with great energy. The cheeky chemistry between the two also gets some laughs, providing welcome glimmers of sunshine between otherwise brooding clouds.

This won't be the first review to note the similarities between Gary and YEN, which played earlier this year at the Royal Exchange. Both deal with the love-rivalry dynamic between two brothers and both travel to disturbing places. But Gary is the more reflective story, and while it doesn’t have quite the brutal impact of YEN it does carry a great deal of emotional weight; at the end you are left feeling a sense of loss and nostalgia for the easy freedom of youth.

Danielle McIlven’s direction is excellent, making inventive use of a minimal set and overseeing brilliant performances from both actors. A particular highlight comes in the climactic final scene where Andrew dives backward through a wall of cardboard boxes, lying breathless underneath them. My only criticism here would be the pacing, which was at times too rapid: some lines could have done with being given more time to sink in.

Gary: a Love Story is yet another example of the fine work 24:7 is capable of producing, and we hope both the play and the festival itself go on to have a life beyond this short run.