Tom Clayton
Charting a coat check guy’s interactions over the course of an evening, this play is fast paced and funny. As you travel through the course of the evening and the characters get more and more drunk it brings out the problems and issues that surround everyone.
It opens with a voice note from the coat checks guy dad checking that he’s okay and wanting a reply. We then jump straight into the night out with a drug fuelled guy with no shoes on attempting to get inside. This sets the scene for the opening exchanges as each character that comes into the club is an over the top, larger than life characters with at times questionable accents designed purely for laughs. There’s a distinct sketch comedy vibe to this opening section, which isn’t a bad thing but you do start to think if this will be the whole show.
However just as you start to think this the coat check guy begins to start opening up to people to provide a helping hand in making their night isn’t ruined. You can see that this heart from him comes from a place of grief in his past and that he is clearly still struggling, he’s isolated and lonely and these interactions allow him to grow into himself more and gain in confidence. The actor who plays him does a great job as his posture changes and the way he interacts with the characters around is more confident than before.
The rest of the cast play their parts well and jump between characters with ease. It’s a credit as the show gives each of them a number of parts to play with little time ever really off the stage. The design of the coat check being a separate room allows for people to naturally come and go so that they can each change character with it feeling too forced.
As you come towards the end of the play everything starts to unravel and all of this confidence the coat check guy had built starts to disappear from him with mistakes being due to some of the things he said. As characters all start to tie together it feels a little forced at times making the threads all compile into one. Just past the height of all of this there’s a strange bit where 3 characters leave which really feels like it has nothing to do with the rest of the play.
This play was well acted and staged but at times the writing feels as though it does let the performances down. The jokes are strong the themes of the show feel a little weak. Touching on loneliness within men and people that have lost loved ones this play almost hits the mark with them but the message is a little weak and never quite it’s the same heights as the jokes around it.
Funny, quick and kind-hearted. This play will make you laugh and feel for those around you.
Recommended Drink: Your preferred drink on a night out.
Loose Threads has now concluded performances at EdFringe 2025.
Jake Mace
Lamesha Ruddock
Jasmine Silk
