My First Review!!! From Jason Hewitt...the soon to be International Best Selling Author of the Dynamite Room!!! :)

BIG BOY’S DON’T CRY

Here it is folks....good start me thinks!! :)

Let’s face it – taking a show up to the Edinburgh Fringe is not for the faint-hearted. And when that show is a forty-minute play with you as the only cast member you really need guts. Thankfully Bobby Bulloch, in what will be his first performance at the Fringe, has them in abundance.

I caught a preview of Big Boys Don’t Cry at the Lord Stanley Theatre in London as part of London’s Solo Festival. Performed by Scottish-born, Bobby Bulloch and written by Elizabeth R. Davidson, from Hamilton, South Lanarkshire, it digs deep into Scottish roots, Bulloch bringing to it an authentic Scottish burr that might take non-locals (myself included) a few minutes to tune into but delivers a story that, nevertheless, is universal to all.

It is told by Eddie; a man coming to terms with fatherhood and all the clobber, confusion, chaos and conflicting emotions that this entails. It’s an interesting male view on parenthood, but also the effects children have on adult relations, on male individuality and the relationships fathers-to-be have with their own fathers. (After all, who wants to make the same mistakes?)

Whilst the arc of the story might hold few surprises, it is written with wit, power and poignancy. Davidson, who sadly recently died, had an acute ear for the vernacular, producing gritty but heartfelt dialogue that laces humour into even the darkest moments. This, of course, relies on Bobby Bulloch performing the story with equal panache. I’m glad to say that he pulls it off. In Bulloch’s portrayal Eddie confides in the audience all the conflicting thoughts and emotions he dare not, or simply cannot, convey to his wife. It is a brave and truthful confession, delivered with unflinching fearlessness, Bulloch even taking on other characters with subtle physicality changes as Eddie mimics them.

A poignant, gritty, but also warmly amusing production, Big Boys Don’t Cry is well worth the ticket with a standout performance by Bobby Bulloch. As to whether big boys actually cry or not, well, I won’t spoil the end by saying; but if you are sat in the audience you at least might need a tissue or two.