Review: Lucifer, Bread and Roses Theatre

Bizarrely, the very afternoon before I took my seat in the intimate space that is the flourishing Bread and Roses Theatre to watch Roger Goldsmith’s brand new two-hander Lucifer, I had finally managed to catch a matinee showing of I Swear, a brilliant, must-see film about John Davidson, who developed Tourette’s syndrome. I only mention it because just as Tom in Lucifer, who suffers from a stammer, albeit a mild one, he was mercilessly bullied at school, traumatised, and basically misunderstood. Davidson consequently suffered appalling discrimination in society and at the workplace, but ultimately overcame it.

Tom, played by Will Middleton, has proved himself by studying hard and becoming an exceptional engineer, and we first meet him as he is tasked to deliver a presentation to a major client. It is excruciating and agonising as we see first-hand the challenges Tom faces. Luckily, he can return home to his teenage son, Billy (Lenius Jung), who bounces around the home – and stage – doing what teenage lads do. Billy plays football, pines for the gorgeous girl in his class and is crazy about David Bowie (we are in the eighties here and ‘Dancing in the Street’ is in full swing, with ever faithful memories of Ziggy Stardust). Jung gives him a wonderful natural energy, quickfire natural delivery with an infectious physicality: in all, a completely winning and utterly engaging performance that brings out the humour and really nails the puppy-like enthusiasm of a teenager. He is very impressive. 

Billy, it is, who has to try to bring his father out of a dark depression, as a result of his being sacked from his job following his stammering presentation. On top of everything else, Tom’s wife has left for a gym buddy, and she tries to tempt Billy to live with her. But touchingly, he stays faithful to his father. Essentially, the play tells this story of loyalty and tenderness between the two, and both actors successfully create a living relationship by playing off each other well. 

Goldsmith relates other moments in the plot by getting Billy to write letters to David Bowie, recounting the events in his life, notably his growing success and connection with the gorgeous girl in the class, as well as putting down his feelings for his dad. On the other side of the coin, Goldsmith gives Tom moments when he talks to us directly about his past. 

I have to say that at times the dramatic thrust sagged, the plot didn’t quite know where it was going, and the solutions found seemed all too neat, for want of a better word. The explanation of “Lucifer” as an overall title seems incidental at best, and I frankly didn’t get the connection – he’s a fallen angel, right? And suddenly, right at the end, we have a kind of agitprop speech to the audience to round off matters, which is important in terms of what it has to say, but dramatically it seems clunky and tacked on. However, Goldsmith has a great feel for dialogue and character-appropriate idiom – teenage Billy is spot on.

This is a tender and gentle piece that touches on attitudes to a condition that, to this day, so many people are ignorant of, although the discrimination that Tom suffered at the beginning of the evening would no longer be tolerated. Information, education and sensitising the general public are vital, and this two-hander goes some way to doing that, in a heartwarming and entertaining way.

Writer: Roger Goldsmith
Director/Producer: Luci Florence

Lucifer runs at the Bread and Roses Theatre until Saturday 1 November