Words by India Farnham; production images by Pamela Raith
You couldn’t pay me to re-live the day I moved out of my family home and into my university halls again.
Much like Brian, the lead character in Antic Productions’ reenergised musical Starter For Ten, set in the 80s and back for its second run at Bristol Old Vic, it wasn’t just the prospect of sharing a bathroom with a dozen other 18-year-olds that made the move so scary (although that proved to be as terrifying as it sounds). It was the weight of my own sky-high expectations.
Brian, played by the boyish and naively charming Adam Bregman, is a simple man. He loves University Challenge, a programme he watched as a child with his now-passed dad and desperately wants to take part in, and he really, really wants to be taken seriously. Like, really. He sings a whole song about it.
And so, armed with his Kate Bush vinyl, a bag of possessions and his leftist, liberal-ist, humanist-ist politics, Brian heads off to the University of Bristol, driven by his uncle, who may or may not be his mum’s new boyfriend. But who cares! None of that matters! Because his journey to being seen as a real intellectual, and ultimately, being on the quiz team, is just about to begin…
Adapted from the novel by best-selling author David Nicholls, who is also enjoying a sparkling return to the limelight after the success of Netflix’s One Day adaption, and the popular 2006 film starring James McAvoy, Charlie Parham’s Starter For Ten carves its own identity in its unabashed delight in presenting an entire cast of larger-than-life university personalities.
There are the macho rugby boys, bounding out of public school and straight into cross-dressing nights out, the nerds, the Enlightened™ ones (those that went on a Gap Year- pronounced Gap Yar – “I haven’t used toilet paper in ten months. Just this hand and a bottle of water!”) and the ones who want to change the world by… singing a song. And if you’re wondering how many cast members it takes to reproduce an entire institution of identities, you might be surprised. It’s a very nimble 13 paired with the help of a brilliant wigs department.
Nostalgia abounds as the echoes of 80s pop royalty weave together to form Starter For Ten’s distinctive and gloriously catchy soundtrack. The music, by Hatty Carman and Tom Rasmussen, shimmers with the synth-y undertones of Duran Duran, New Order, and Madonna. Weightless, a personal favourite, gets the whole Olivia Newton-John treatment, as a neon and lycra-clad Brian and co. perform a perfectly timed, rhythmic workout. Behind Starter For Ten’s choreography is the brilliant Alexzander Sarmiento, whose super-slick movements feel as sharp and precise as any quickfire quiz answer.
As with all of us, Brian’s media consumption seeps into how he sees the world. Bamber Gascoigne (the original presenter of University Challenge, for anyone who was embarrassingly born in the 2000s, like myself), played by an uncanny Stephen Ashfield, is like a genie in a bottle, hilariously popping into Brian’s real life whenever he least expects it. His favourite artist, Kate Bush, “the last living romantic”, is with him in his own, semi-hopeless romantic pursuits, “I’m Heathcliff, stuck at the window / Cathy’s sipping a Strongbow”.
The Cathy in question here is Imogen Craig’s Alice: a super-privileged posh totty (“I’ve travelled the world. But I’ve never been up north!”) with dreams of being on the stage. Think Bugsy Malone’s Tallulah crossed with Sharpay Evans. And the second third of the musical’s central love triangle is Asha Parker-Wallace’s Rebecca, a quick-witted reformed-emo-kid Glaswegian who, over the course of her budding friendship with Brian, challenges him to stand up for something, to believe in himself. I thought they were both excellent.
Despite an evident comprehension of the rigid British class system, Starter For Ten doesn’t attempt to comment on the other systems of oppression its characters might have experienced, whether in the classroom or on the streets of Bristol. Perhaps it also simplifies some of the nuances of David Nicholls’ original story. Instead, Charlie Parham’s Starter For Ten takes a traditional, feel-good approach. It’s fun, it’s colourful, it stars Mel Giedroyc wearing a Margaret Thatcher-esque wig, and it’s a genuinely original British musical. And if that’s not worth a jazz hands, I don’t know what is.
Now, your starter for ten… how long are these songs going to be stuck in my head?
Answer: At least a month. (Uuuuuuuniversity challenge…)
Starter For Ten is showing at Bristol Old Vic until 11 October. Tickets here.
