YOURS SINCERELY - AT THE TOWN AND GOWN
Be dishonest – what would you do if you ‘acquired’ a batch of 300 second class stamps? This apparently happened to Will Jackson who wrote and performed his Edinburgh Fringe hit at the Town and Gown last night. As the audience arrive in the space, we are deep into Will’s rather chaotic world: papers strewn all over the stage floor, a desk piled with writing stuff, and the man himself furiously scribbling on random bits of paper which he deposits in the mess of boxes. This untidy mayhem is a metaphor for Will’s recent life as projected in the show. Whether it is truly his life story or not matters not a jot but there is a postage stamp of authenticity on the hour long ramble into his life as a debt-ridden gay graduate unable to hold down a decent job, find a soul mate or break out of the man-child inside his head. It is a really curious hour of theatre – hard to define in its seeming chaotic structure. Will lip sincs his way through songs poignant to his experience of unrequited passions, lonely isolation, fears of cancer and yet a stoic defiance. Part of this stoicism is his ‘theft’ of these postage stamps and a determination to use them to write to everyone he knows, and many that he doesn’t. The act involves much reading out of the said epistles – to his much missed erstwhile flatmate Kat, to his new seemingly cold house sharer, to Cadburys to worm a chocolate voucher out of them and to John Lewis to suggest a crazy Xmas ad involving the love of two fish in an optometrist’s waiting room. In the latter two examples, Will dons the guise of his nine year-old self and there is much of the cheeky mischievous imp in the young man’s persona.
The amiable audience-friendly persona – is this the real Will or not?- was warm and we cared about the many jerks and dead ends that life throws at him. We forgive his adolescent phallic graffiti and admire the honest portrayal of a young man trying to make sense of a harsh world. He is also a very generous character – he shares his rude drawings with the audience as well as a panto-style shower of chocolates. Above all he shares his deepest personal emotions – the bitter rejection of his first flirtation with a man, the worrying news about a growth on his testicle.
Above all this show is a love letter to letters – he describes it correctly as a lost art and encourages us to write to him on a postcard generously provided by him. The strange and seemingly madly chaotic nature of the show may not be to everyone’s taste but I really liked it. It had a strong point to make about communication in a digital world and opened the door to the experience of a millennial finding some solace in the forgotten art of letter writing. He showed that old-fashioned mail takes some licking!
