Theatre review: World's End

With its 1990s-set teenage gay romance in neighbouring flats of a London tower block (albeit in Chelsea rather than Thamesmead,) World’s End invites inevitable comparisons to Beautiful Thing. Actor James Corley’s playwriting debut lacks the relatable characters to have anything like the same impact on audiences, but it does have its moments. In late 1998, Viv (Patricia Potter) returns to London after two failed marriages and many years of constant moving around; she rents the tiny flat next to Ylli (Nikolaos Brahimllari,) an Albanian widower and once-aspiring artist who now takes odd jobs in security. Both have 19-year-old sons, Viv’s new one-bedroom flat meaning Ben (Tom Milligan) has to sleep in the living room, where he locks himself away most of the time playing on his new Playstation. Besnick (Mirlind Bega) is more socially confident, and while perhaps not technically out to his disapproving father seems unfazed by Ylli’s occasional digs at his effeminacy.

He is another big fan of the growing world of game consoles, and after helping his new neighbours move in Zelda becomes the common ground that makes him and Ben friends.

As the war in Kosovo gets bloodier, Ylli starts getting involved with some of the shadier elements of the resistance, while Viv spends more and more time with a new man. Left to their own devices, the young men’s relationship develops and Besnick attempts to get Ben out of his shell, and out of the closet. Corley touches on a lot of subjects in his play, from violence at home and abroad – and the increasingly uncensored coverage of it on the evening news – to the demonization of immigrants and other minorities, right down to unscrupulous private landlords renting out former council flats at extortionate rates. It makes his point about the parallels between twenty years ago and today, but it does feel like characterisation’s been allowed to fall by the wayside.

Viv and Ben in particular are hard to get a handle on; both parents have characters largely drawn in angry rants, but Viv’s parenting technique seems to consist entirely of veering wildly between coddling her 19-year-old son and keeping him out of the world, and screaming at him for not having a job. She’s one of those characters who come along occasionally, who only make sense if you assume she’s profoundly stupid – there’s never any mention of Ben having any diagnosed behavioural difficulties despite everything about Milligan’s performance suggesting it, did it never occur to her to find out? – to the point where you have to feel vaguely impressed with her for any scene she gets through without being outwitted by the furniture.

Outside of the video game references there’s not much in Harry Mackrill’s production to suggest the period, but even so as the months pass in the story I guessed one event that would end up becoming part of the narrative; and when it does, there’s a bit of a cheat going on in the writing that suggests Ben’s injuries are more significant than they turn out to be. The central relationship is endearing enough, but everything surrounding it is a bit too rough around the edges for me to really tune into their world.

World’s End by James Corley is booking until the 21st of September at the King’s Head Theatre.

Running time: 1 hour 25 minutes straight through.

Photo credit: Bettina Adela.