I had the pleasure of being invited by Gutter Street Theatre Company to review their new play, High Riser, at the Young Actor’s Theatre last night. It was wonderful to be seeing a new original play in such an intimate setting.

The plot

High Riser explores the life, struggles and hardships of a fictional rock band’s troubled frontman. As the audience enters, we see the floor littered with torn pages from his biography, tapes are scattered everywhere, and the distressed Rockstar is pacing around his high rise flat. Throughout the course of the next hour or so, we learn about the Rockstar’s life and the dark secrets it contains.

The cast and creatives

To carry a play solely by oneself can be a difficult task for any actor. It requires a lot of confidence, as well as physical and emotional rigour, to pull it off. Tom Simpson, however, makes it seem effortless. He has no problem commanding the attention of the room as the Rockstar, whilst navigating through the life and inner demons of his character. Despite there only being one actor, director Leo Flanagan helps make sure that every corner of the tiny space in the Young Actor’s Theatre is utilised.

It’s an impressive feat to tell the life story of a person within such a short time space. Playwright, Josh Barrow, has done a great job at condensing down the most important moments to tell the audience. The sound design, by Daniel Hardwick, had the capabilities to take us from a quiet pub with the hum of conversations in the background, to a crowded music festival with thousands of screaming fans.

One thing the play may have benefitted from would be having the Music Journalist onstage, rather than Phoebe Mills voicing her from the sidelines. It took me a little while to realise the voice was live and not a recording. I felt disappointed that she wasn’t onstage for her scenes. It would have been nice for both actors to have a chance to bounce off each other face to face.

What moments were a highlight?

There were a couple of things that really stood out to me in this play. First and foremost was the mind-blowing performance from Tom Simpson. His ability to switch seamlessly between the other characters we encounter in the story was remarkable. His presence on stage as the Rockstar is both convincing and somewhat intense at times.

Near the end of the play, we also get an original song by Joe Costello called ‘Bruises’. As it’s a play about a musician, I was hoping that somewhere in the show we would get a moment like this. When it finally came, it was definitely worth the wait.

Gutter Street Theatre

The unique thing about Gutter Street is that their plays are all interconnected. They centre around residents of the same street, across different time periods, going through various experiences. I believe (although don’t quote me on this) that High Riser is their third play set in this fictional world.

Returning to see another Gutter Street play in the future will mean venturing further down this road, discovering new stories and personalities. It’s quite an interesting concept for a theatre company. There are so many possibilities for the characters their future plays may explore and I’m excited to see where they go next. In September 2021, they will be bringing back one of their previous plays, ‘Feathers’.

Final thoughts

High Riser is a well-written, brilliantly performed play that dives into the darker side of fame. It explores challenging and difficult themes, condensing one man’s entire life into an hour. This little gem of fringe theatre is only playing between 29th – 31st July, so if you’re free tonight make sure to get your tickets!