A story of how following your ambitions doesn’t always work out.
This Camden Fringe new writing’s piece opened at Hen and Chickens Theatre in Islington. A tale of how following your dreams isn’t always paved with gold.
Say goodbye to London follows Norris (Pedro Montenegro) as he leaves the states for England to follow his passion for standup. Along the way he is caught in the dilemma of paying rent and bills and he soon finds himself down the rabbit hole of conspiracy theories. Fuelled by an insatiable need to be relevant and successful he finds himself becoming the thing he detested.
A small wooden table and a chair were centre stage, another chair off to one side and a tripod set up for the all-important Youtubing was the set for this piece. Clever use of spotlighting helped to show when Norris was performing standup in this monologue-esque performance. The use of blue lighting also made it feel quite sombre as he descended into despair. With no set change, the use of music really helped bring to life some scenes interspersed with dialogue from his partner Marge (Alex Kidder who also doubles as his sister during the piece). I did at times wonder why Marge was sitting down on stage but maybe she was as much of a witness as the audience was at Norris losing sight of who he is. The costume for both performers was simple. Kidder was in all black as she played his sister and colleague/boss then partner. Montenegro dressed in trackie bottoms, a t shirt and hoodie worked for his standup persona and then a dirty vest top underneath brought home how he had let himself be consumed by other influences.
Say goodbye to London is an interesting piece. It follows the ambitious expectations that sometimes comes with following dreams and the reality of making those dreams come true, with the all too known explosion of conspiracy theories that arose during covid. This piece also highlights the addictive side and unrealistic nature of finding that viral hit, how you will achieve internation success and make a career following on from it.
It was performed well and Norris was a really engaging character and you felt drawn in to his story and empathy as life gets the better of him. The element of dialogue between Norris and Marge really highlighted Norris’s demise, which I don’t think would have been achieved had it been a straight monologue. For what I am assuming is a first-time written piece, it certainly was captivating.