Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Cast: Eddie John Fortune, Becky Brooks.
Does art imitate life or does life take a big huge dollop of inspiration from the art that goes on around it? In the case of two fellow struggling actors who live in Dingle, the hastily drawn chalk mark between these lines have become blurred and in the end the fractious nature of their relationship, the acerbic co-dependency that has been formed can only lead to one conclusion that both Eddie and Jackie need each other, despite the fact that they drive each other up the wall.
Eddie and Jackie, Jackie and Eddie is a touching, sometimes verbally brutal look at the lives of two very different people with one common aim, to become the artists that they know they are deep down inside. What’s holding them back is in reality each other but in the end it was forges a new path for them both.
The setting inside The Unity Theatre Two space showed the miniscule alongside the epic, from the use of strewn half read books including The Art of Feng Shui, a C.D. containing music from the seminal German band Kraftwerk and a television in which only gets put on for Bargain Hunt, the smallest detail given extra credence in a way that actors and writers take joy in adding. Alongside what others would see as clutter but is essential to keeping anyone sane is the epic and in that both Eddie John Fortune and Becky Brooks excel and revel superbly within.
With Harry Sheriff’s closely observed script taking in the way both these two actors work, the simple things, the disagreeable moments such as calling a family relative who winds you up or the start of a new fad diet take on such grand importance that the audience cannot help but laugh and feel the despair that seeps out of two very strong performances. Mr. Fortune again shows why he can go from genuine comedy to wide eyed maniacal as he did so well at in Grin Theatre’s Tongues and at all times keep the complexity of his demeanour shrouded with a style and panache that makes you wonder how long before he moves on in the world, it surely cannot be long.
Ms. Brooks was a delight as the doubting, diet-influenced flatmate and in one particular moment of brutal honesty summed up Eddie’s problems by talking about his family issues. Although more readily known as a singer, Ms. Brooks came across as an actor who is very much a force of nature, a natural.
Like a lot of plays that only exist for a couple of days in the theatre, Eddie and Jackie, Jackie and Eddie is an enjoyable heartfelt, twisted romp that should have that extra bit of time allowed to make it shine even brighter.
Ian D. Hall