2015WHATILE_YA

Nick Burton is a London journalist bored with the City and its gluttonous, ridiculous gentrification. During a press pack visit to a new “urban festival” located on an ex council estate, which pays tribute to the “suffering” of former residents, Nick is prompted recall last time he stood at that estate, with Johnny Bevan, the University friend who opened  up his world.

Much like Nick’s life, Luke Wright’s debut theatre show really gets going when the titular Johnny Bevan explodes onto the stage. Its a literary society open mic –  all swagger and confidence and spittting out his poem, “Tea With the Tories” (“shoes off Ken, sorry to ask/ but you’ve trodden in some working class”).

In Johnny, Nick finds, “The friend I’d been waiting all my safe and boring life to meet”. Their world is all politics, music, literature and debate. Come 1997, Johnny, Nick and their friends join up and ride the wave of socialist hope. If you’re a Leftie in need of a lift after May 7th, Nick’s adrenaline-fuelled, hopeful, passionate account of election night in 1997 might do the job.

Or it might not, because if Wright’s show pinpoints one thing, it’s that nothing is ever straight forward, and political feelings are never simple. Wright captures so much truth in his fluid, sparky verse, riffing on contemporary, social media driven London, the ridiculous world of PR, that oh-so-British tinge of middle class guilt, and the complex story of New Labour.

At the heart of this show is the endlessly complicated relationship between politics and class; in Nick and Johnny, two worlds collide, and their differences in background can never quite be ignored. Above all, it’s about coming to terms with our idols when they disappoint us, and the danger of putting people on pedestals in the first place. Sometimes funny and sometimes heartbreaking, What I Learned From Johnny Bevan is beautifully plotted and completely engaging, reminding us that politics affects everything. 

What I Learned From Johnny Bevan is playing at Summerhall (Venue 26) as part of the Edinburgh Fringe from 15-17, 19-30 August. For more information,visit the Edinburgh Festival website.