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By Lyn Gardner in The Observer Posted on Tuesday, August 8th, 2006

Ruth is phoning her favourite late-night phone-in. “Barry,” she enthuses to the host, “you are a prick in the conscience of the nation.” Night after night in the small hours, talk radio host Barry Champlain listens to the deranged, the bigoted, the heart-broken and the plain stupid as they pour out their tears, bile and bewilderment over the airwaves. So successful is his show that it is about to go national, but there is one last crazy night to get through.

The first show from the new Comedians Theatre Company, dedicated to letting stand-ups get their teeth into meaty drama, this revival of Eric Bogosian’s 1980s play is a curious choice. Inspired by the murder of liberal radio talk show host Alan Berg, Bogosian’s play pre-dates the rise of the rightwing shock jock, and as an excavation of the American psyche looks rather dated. It fails to tell us much we don’t already know about a misfit America of religious maniacs, racists and deranged pet-lovers whose provincialism means their understanding of the world doesn’t extend beyond their own navels.

With a much sharper production than we are offered here from Stewart Lee, and in a more intimate space than the Udderbelly, this might work better. The show should be as unsettling as an anonymous dirty phone call, rather than light and cosy. The team of comics are good as the disembodied voices who phone in, but although Phil Nichol works hard as Champlain, he lacks the sense of despair and savagery that the host should feel about the nation as he listens to the poison oozing across the airwaves. As a result, it is Will Adamsdale’s over-the-top comic turn as a drug-befuddled teenager who lingers in the mind.

Written by Lyn Gardner in The Observer on 8th August 2006. Filed Under: Reviews, Talk Radio
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