The Double Act.

Arcola Theatre, London.
Cast: Nigel Betts, Nigel Cooke and Edward Hogg
Writer: Mark Jagasia
Director: Oscar Pearce
Dates of run: Until February 22
Running time: approximately two hours including interval.

 

 

This unsettling, multi-layered, hilarious dive into the great modern British divisions of north versus south, woke versus non-woke – and bullies versus clowns – has its deepest roots, the writer tells us, in a childhood lived close to the seaside towns of northwest England.

In what he describes self-deprecatingly as “the resulting strange, little farce”, he imagines the dark happenings inside one of the “death-adjacent” houses built on the wind-swept Irish Sea coast.

The residents are the failed clown half of a comic double act Cliff (Nigel Cooke) and his mysterious lodger Gulliver (Edward Hogg).  At first smiling, dimpled and obliging, Gulliver is the agent of a reunion with Cliff’s more successful other half: Billy, played by Nigel Betts in the style of Les Dawson.

According to Billy’s interpretation of double column book-keeping, he is morally in the black on the basis that his homophobic, racist jokes make millions of people laugh.

But that is to ignore the countless millions who suffered cruelly, as the butt of jokes that are not so much bad as evil.

In a nod to the retro revivals that have swept British theatre in recent years, Sarah Beaton’s apt set features a garish sofa and rug that belong to the era when Cliff and Billy’s baby boomer audience was in its prime.

But rather than pandering to nostalgia, we are confronted with the question: “What if the past were not such a golden age?”

The creeping realisation of just how dark it was is the source of much of the play’s tension, as the full extent is left largely to our imagination, fired by risque double-entendres and frequent references to a cellar of uncertain contents.

Oscar Pearce’s skilled direction of the highly accomplished cast achieves the goal he sets himself in the programme of balancing the horror with humour.  Together with Mark Jagasia’s densely packed writing that makes every word count, true to his sound journalistic training, he works up the audience to a pitch of edgy hilarity.  It is cathartic because this laughter is not cruel.

Barbara Lewis © 2025.

   
Rehearsal Photo 5 - Arcola_TheDoubleAct_(c)AlexBrenner.
Rehearsal Photo 6 - Arcola_TheDoubleAct_(c)AlexBrenner.
Rehearsal Photo 7 - Arcola_TheDoubleAct_(c)AlexBrenner.
'The Double Act' - Artwork - By Charles Flint.
'The Double Act' Landscape Artwork - by Charles Flint.
Rehearsal Photo 1 - Arcola_TheDoubleAct_(c)AlexBrenner.
Rehearsal Photo 2 - Arcola_TheDoubleAct_(c)AlexBrenner.
Rehearsal Photo 3 - Arcola_TheDoubleAct_(c)AlexBrenner.
Rehearsal Photo 4 - Arcola_TheDoubleAct_(c)AlexBrenner.
Rehearsal Photo 5 - Arcola_TheDoubleAct_(c)AlexBrenner.
Rehearsal Photo 6 - Arcola_TheDoubleAct_(c)AlexBrenner.
Rehearsal Photo 7 - Arcola_TheDoubleAct_(c)AlexBrenner.
'The Double Act' - Artwork - By Charles Flint.
'The Double Act' Landscape Artwork - by Charles Flint.
Rehearsal Photo 1 - Arcola_TheDoubleAct_(c)AlexBrenner.
Rehearsal Photo 2 - Arcola_TheDoubleAct_(c)AlexBrenner.
Rehearsal Photo 3 - Arcola_TheDoubleAct_(c)AlexBrenner.
Rehearsal Photo 4 - Arcola_TheDoubleAct_(c)AlexBrenner.
Rehearsal Photo 5 - Arcola_TheDoubleAct_(c)AlexBrenner.