Last night, the world premiere of Stephen Clark‘s new play Le Grand Mort opened at London’s Trafalgar Studios 2 starring James Nelson-Joyce and Julian Clary, for whom Le Grand Mort was specially written before Stephen Clark died last year.
The show opens with a monologue by Julian Clary (Michael), who is preparing dinner for a boy he met earlier that day. As he prepares the meal, he talks to the audience about life, death and sex as he cuts, splices and cooks the food in a way Hannibal Lecter might prepare his victim for the dinner table.
When the youngster Tim (James Nelson-Joyce) arrives for dinner, they unleash a series of mind games upon each other, trying to establish why they have both been drawn to each other. But as the night goes on, the stories about their lives of sexual abuse, death and coping with intimacy bring them together with potentially deadly consequences.
Le Grand Mort is brilliant directed by Christopher Renshaw, who has you on the edge of your seat gasping for breath by the end of the show. The simple by elegant set design by Justin Nardella acts perfectly to demonstrate an upperclass lifestyle, whilst also managing to morph in to a cold clinical toture chamber.
Intense, whitty and extreemly poetic. Le Grand Mort has everything a great play should have. It will shock you to the core and left me wanting to watch the show again as I feel there is so much more to it than can be absorbed in one sitting.
Reviewed by West End Wilma
Photo: Scott Rylander
Le Grand Mort plays at Trafalgar Studios until 28 October 2017. Book tickets