The Double Act
Arcola Theatre, London

THE eponymous “double act” depicted in Mark Jagasia’s long-awaited second play at the Arcola is a comedy duo, so we might be forgiven for expecting an evening of light entertainment. The central thesis of the work, however, is far more grim. 

The action — or rather the repartee — takes place in one seedy room, in one seedy maisonette in one seedy seaside town somewhere “up North.” Here a long-disbanded comedy twosome meet again after many years apart. They are reintroduced by neighbour Gulliver who — for reasons that become apparent — has invited Billy to visit Clifford whom he describes as unwell. 

The reunion is tricky and any suggestion that the two reunite for a grand come-back — or at least for a token turn in a down-at-heel, end-of-the-pier shack — is fiercely resisted by a still-on-the-circuit Billy who glories in his given title of “Britain’s Third Most Offensive Comedian.”