What I love most about Top Gs Like Me – a new piece of theatre created at Royal & Derngate and set in Northampton – is that there is nothing timid or apologetic about it.
It is a big brash exploration of toxic masculinity and digital alienation through the eyes of two young Northamptonians at the gates of adulthood.
The staging sets the tone with a huge recreation of Radlands skatepark through the middle of the main auditorium. It’s an impressive sight greeting the audience as we take our seats either side of the performance area.
The blacked-out balconies and railings of Derngate around it lend an air of mundane dystopia to the graffiti bejazzled skate ramps. Through inventive light and sound the no-mud-no-lotus beauty of contemporary Northampton transforms suddenly into the glittering chaos of the contemporary digital world.
The main character Aidan, granted sufficient dumb charm by Daniel Rainford to keep us as on his side as we need to be, conducts these episodes with extravagant swipes of his phone and it says something about the slick professionalism of the production that the scenes of high intensity social media slop switch apparently at the whim of his flailing arm.
The endless parade of urgent nonsense becomes both hilarious and sinister as the ninety minute show progresses. It begins to poison Aiden’s view of the world and his friendship with Northampton born Fanta Barrie’s character Mia. Her trajectory in life appears to be upward while his appears to be down, and Fanta imbues Mia with compassion and sanity as Aidan’s world begins to spiral.
Another actor of Northampton origin Finn Samuels carries the weight of being the embodiment of Mia’s bright future. He is Charlie, her new boyfriend from ‘The Boys’ School’ who is presented very much as the privileged idiot Aidan expects him to be. There are some laughs attached to this but the story doesn’t acknowledge that in this town the perceived top of the heap is itself a state school boxing clever. There are no real airs and graces here.
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The digital interludes introduce us to the online male influencer Hugo Bang – played energetically by Danny Hatchard for laughing at, not with. He has a pivotal seductive influence on Aidan despite his vibe being the stag do from hell. If this was musical theatre a brilliant song would help us buy the transition and some clever staging sells the moment, but I felt like the battle for Aidan’s soul was over before it had begun.
It matters because Aidan gets himself in a real serious mess after that. He devises a ludicrous side hustle to get rich quick recruiting down and out Dave played by David Schaal (from The Inbetweeners) and his new friend Grace played by Emily Coates. Money and misogyny bring him nothing but trouble and this plays out in a shocking way. The script is throwing gut punches in the last quarter and while not all of them land some of them land so big it is like they are trying to set up a sequel.
The marvellous thing about Top Gs Like Me is that the people who made it are still making it at every performance until the run ends on March 7. Samson Hawkins original script has been developed by Artistic Director Jesse Jones and his team who have the luxury of being able to tweak and shape the production as it goes on.
It’s an ambitious, exciting show that is often spectacular and often funny. If I’m honest the resolution to the main crisis at the end does not make me feel like the crisis is over – some things you cannot just swipe away. The chefs still have the option of seasoning the dish but they will want to hold on to the show’s talking points too. No-one said it would be easy putting on plays.
As a proud Northampton resident I must admit I would have liked a stronger flavour of Northampton’s special sauce – that paradoxical magic in the dirt when you are walking in the footsteps of kings but you don’t know it. Things happen here you wouldn’t expect. Despite appearances it is a place for believers. Monarchs get toppled. Revolutionaries get inspired. World class sport gets produced. World class art gets produced. World class shoes get produced. We have one of the largest psychiatric facilities in Europe. We put our poets in it. Maybe old timer Dave could be a vessel for a bit of that sentiment. He is the perfect character for it.
The University of Northampton supplied a lot of cast members and Northampton College is heavily engaged with the production too. The meta irony of it all is that thanks to Royal & Derngate the Northampton our heroes are trying to aspire their way out of is one of only a few places in the country that regularly produces its own theatre work like this. The whole cast and crew were operating at the top of their game on press night, delivering a brilliant spectacle with the potential to be even better going forward. This is a Made In Northampton show you won’t want to miss.
The video below features Jesse in conversation about the play with Northampton College Principal Jason Lancaster and the college’s head of Music and Performing Arts Sarah Thursby.
Tickets are available via the Royal & Derngate website here
