Review by Steve Bennett

Graham Chapman's troubled life is well-documented, if perhaps little-known outside the circle of devoted Monty Python fans.

An alcoholic who drank three and half pints of straight gin a day, and often struggled with his sexuality, his mood swings and unreliability proved a burden for his friends and colleagues, none more so than writing partner John Cleese.

In many ways, they are the perfect double-act partnership: the shambolic, gay, live-life-for-the-moment Chapman at odds with the straight-laced, uptight and typically British Cleese. But it's something of an unsung partnership, absorbed, in most people's minds, into the whole Python team.

It's this relationship that forms the basis for stand-up Adrian Poynton's new play, directed here by Toni Arthur-Hay once of Play Away fame, and titled after the much-quoted line from Life Of Brian.

Stylistically, it's inventive and interesting with much of the early background told through reworkings of classic Python sketches. For example, he complains his cursory university interview is too short in the same way that a man who paid for a five-minute argument might complain that he had been short-changed. It's an approach that will certainly keep the fans happy.

As his life progresses, we are told that he turned to alcohol to overcome his shyness, that he swung from gloriously happy to morbidly sad, that he grappled with the problems of telling his parents he was gay for more than two years.

Herein lies an essential flaw in the play. We are told these things, we don't see them. The biographical detail is explained through the sketches, or by John Cleese (played by young stand-up Tom Price) explaining them directly to the audience.

While it allows for plenty of deft comic moments and sly Pythonesque touches, this style also makes for a lack of intimacy with the characters, so we don't emphasise with them.

Anyone expecting impressions of their comedy heroes willbe disappointed. While Price and Poynton, who plays Chapman, are strong actors, they set out to capture the mannerisms and persona of the Pythons, rather than their likeness.

Their thespian abilities come into their own in the last 20 minutes or so, when we finally get to witness Chapman's emotions first hand. Poynton evocatively shows the strains of a man ruined by drink picking himself up and dusting himself down - with no professional help and despite the disturbing physical side-effects.

The ending, especially is touching and beautiful, as Price recreates Cleese's brilliant Eulogy to his friend, leaving the audience to file out with lumps in their throats.

A Very Naughty Boy may come as an eye-opener for those who aren't die-hard Python fans; and those who are will surely come along anyway. Either way, it's an enjoyable - if imperfect - mid-afternoon education.

Review date: 1 Jan 2003
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett