Celebrity – a play by Christopher Fowler and an excellent night out

Earlier this week I went to see Celebrity, a play by Christopher Fowler (he of the Bryant & May mysteries, as in my book review Seventy-Seven Clocks: James Bond crossed with Sherlock Holmes and Edgar Allan Poe).

It’s a comedy based around a London PR agent tending to acting stars. Full of biting one-liners and smart set changes, the play in a small, intimate venue manages the switch from humour to pathos deftly. And for those with long memories of daytime TV adverts, there is a bonus – it features Barry Scott from Cillit Bang commercials (though the remix is my favourite version).

Perhaps the one weak point is that the development of characters between scenes rather jumps at times (a sign of a playwright more used to writing novels with their great space for character development?), even with the help of one character acting as a narrator at times.

Even so, it’s a very enjoyable play and I’d highly recommend it.