Blog: Entertaining Mr Sloane

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On Saturdays at this time of year I can often be found travelling to see my good friend Mr P Myland to have a drink and then sit together through an afternoon of expressive arts. Usually this is to Peterborough to see The Football, but on the Saturday just gone it was to London's glittering theatreland to see A PLAY with him and the rest of the group we know as The Mylands.

For LO! we had tickets to go and see Entertaining Mr Sloane at The Young Vic, a theatre what I have not been to before but which turned out to be VERY nice. It was peasy to get too, there was an ample bar selling booze and Actually Rather Tasty grub, and the seating within the theatre itself was v comfy and felt very up close to the action of the show. The only minor quibble I had was that they have invested in TERRIBLE stools that were surely designed by someone who has never seen an arse in their life - they have the same ones now at The Barbican (yes, I am very sophisticated) and they are awful.

Apart from that it was all great and the show itself was dead good too. It starred Tamzin Outhwaite out of Eastenders, Moxey from Auf Wiedersehn Pet, The Bloke From Rizzle Kicks, and Daniel Cerqueira who has not been in any telly I've watched but who was good. Tamzin Outhwaite was VERY good throughout, and Moxey was too, which made The Bloke From Rizzle Kicks look slightly - not a lot, but slightly - less good overall. It was his first proper stage play apparently, so with that in mind he did all right. I suppose the Young Vic would want to cast him as a way to get in young people who are so easily swayed by this sort of thing, unlike hepcats like me who definitely weren't just there to see Mel from Eastenders. AT ALL.

The play itself was a bit of a rum old do. I am very mildly familiar with Joe Orton from a) living in Leicester for a long time b) reading about his unmade Beatles movie and c) us doing "Loot" when I was a student, but wasn't familiar with this one at all. I read online afterwards that it was like a cross between Harold Pinter and Beckett, which seems pretty perfect to me. It was odd though thinking about how SHOCKING it would have been at the time, but that the things that shock us now are the general air of misogyny and acceptance of violence, whereas the amorality and comedy of awkwardness is something that's been absorbed into culture generally. Stick that on your posters, Young Vic!

It was a highly delightful way to spend a Saturday afternoon with highly delightful people, and was certainly more fun than recent trips to London Road have been. I wonder if they do Season Tickets?

posted 8/10/2025 by MJ Hibbett

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