Simon Ward reviews Player at the Riverside Studios

If Matthew Lyon’s new play has a distinctly Berkoffian look and feel, that is hardly surprising as Lyon explicitly credits Steven Berkoff’s Actor as the inspiration for this rumination on the trials and tribulations of the actor’s life. On a stripped back, almost bare set, Lyon’s ‘Boy’ even wears Berfkoff’s trademark Everyman outfit of dark grey trousers, white shirt, braces and shaven head. Again like many of Berkoff’s characters, he speaks primarily in verse, but verse fashioned from the language of everyday life, with a generous helping of mock Shakesperean, and liberally interspersed with unprintable swearwords. This must be a distillation of many years’ experience, desperately trying to make a living, running up against innumerable obstacles but still somehow keeping the dream alive.

Played as a series of vignettes, with blackout between, the gaps sometimes feel a beat or two too long, and the show sometimes struggles to maintain momentum. Nonetheless, the individual segments are good, sometimes excellent, and there is no doubt that Lyon is a master at packing a punch with a well-chosen metaphor, and unexpected simile. He takes us through from the first awakenings of his acting ambitions as a child looking for an escape from a truly monstrous mother (all female parts brilliantly played by Ola Forman) through to the horrors of drama school, the endless rounds of hopeless rehearsals, the sneering incomprehension of the powers that be in the dole office, and the tiny bit parts in terrible shows that, sadly, don’t have any money to pay the cast. He can’t even get a girl because they all know, unless they have seen him in Eastenders, he will not be taking them on fancy dates to posh places.

He is sharp and witty too on the back-biting bitchiness of the thespian world – one’s fellow players always have a well-sharpened blade ready to thrust into one’s back at the first opportunity. Yet beneath it all, he simply cannot bear to imagine a world where he is not performing. He will force himself back to Edinburgh year after year, despite knowing he will end up knackered, depressed and in debt. He will appear on TV dressed as a sandwich, just so he can impress his gran. Because acting is the only way he knows how to truly express himself – any other life would be a hollow sham. Indeed, he is not afraid to suggest to us, the audience, that our lives are empty, which might be considered a bit much given the fact that we have paid to watch him berate us. If there is a note of self-pity it is here, but he does mostly avoid it. He skewers audiences in general, though, for their inattention, their ignorance, their bad behaviour. We have definitely all witnessed those. And the closing gag is a pitch-picture send-up of all concerned – needy actors and ungrateful audiences alike. A hugely enjoyable show, very near the knuckle at times and a fitting homage to his hero.

Player is running at the Riverside Studios, 101 Queen Caroline St, London W6 9BN until Sunday 31st May