SEAN AND DARO FLAKE IT ‘TIL THEY MAKE IT - REVIEW

Sean and Daro Flake It ‘Til They Make It is a new play by Laurie Motherwell currently showing at the Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh. The show chronicles the (mis-)adventures of Sean and Daro, childhood friends who have drifted apart since the former went off to university. The death of Sean’s mother has brought him back to his hometown, leading to the two reuniting and Daro roping Sean into his plan to run an ice cream van together.

It’s undeniable is that the show is hilarious. It’s a great time with a lot of excellent laugh lines, which both Sean Connor and Cameron Fulton as Sean and Daro respectively are able to time perfectly. On this note, the two central performances are great. Both characters, but particularly Daro, could very easily have become caricatures, but the actors and direction by Robert Softley Gale ensure this is never the case. Both Sean and Daro are given full personalities, and you really root for them to succeed throughout the show.

The set design by Karen Tennent is also excellent. The arrangement of stage and audience is not something I’d seen before, and I thought it worked well. The colour palette on stage also conveyed really nicely the sense of childhood innocence, often connoted with ice cream, which juxtaposes very effectively with some of the subject matter being discussed. However, it unfortunately did sometimes feel like the lighting set-up wasn’t optimised for the stage set-up.

Although it was entertaining, there were some issues with the plot. There are two main themes of this show: dealing with grief and classism. Both of these are handled fairly well in isolation but seem to get in the way of each other – it’s very rare that it feels like both themes are being handled at the same time. Instead, one scene deals with one and the next other without any real linking between the two. The individual scenes are excellent, but I felt there needed to be more coherence between them. Similarly, there were moments in serious scenes where there were random laugh lines that felt very out of place, making the tone of the piece feel a tad inconsistent.

Overall, this is a very entertaining show with a pleasant undertone of serious issues. It needs a bit of reworking, but that doesn’t stop it being an excellent way to spend just over an hour.

SEAN AND DARO FLAKE IT ‘TIL THEY MAKE IT is on at the Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh until the 23rd of April 2023. Find out more info here.

{🎟 AD – PR invite – Tickets were gifted in exchange for an honest review}

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