This hilarious comedy of luvvie in-jokes and mid-life catastophe springs from the pen of former Comic Strip and Young Ones flatmates Adrian Edmondson and Nigel Planer.
The three-hander is superbly performed by Rufus Hound as n’er-do-well Gary, and Samuel West as the pompous Hugh - actors who met at drama school ("does one ever leave?") but have wound up with different levels of success.
Nenda Neururer is production assistant Leela who is half their age yet must put up with their tantrums and insecurities.
“Can I leave you two here?" she admonishes. "Now, be good!”.
Hellraiser and womaniser Gary was once 'Scorsese’s go-to young manic' but is reduced to playing cameos in big budget blockbusters - here an adaptation of a video-game as superhero Thermidor in a giant lobster costume. He may have short-term memory problems and doesn’t even know what country he is in, or what the film is about, but oddly, he can remember every word of every script he has ever delivered.
Meanwhile status conscious, precious Hugh is the leading man, with the commensurate upmarket trailer, now parked on the side of a volcano in Iceland.
Gary loathes Hugh's pretentions but loves winding him up, but as the action unfolds the pair gradually realise they are about to be upstaged by a very big bang.
Leela’s geography A-Level comes in handy to interpret the terrifying rumbles from the heart of the mountain as the trailer detaches from the rest of the set on a giant ice sheet, and the panic rises.
Rachel Kavanaugh directs with pace and brio, and Hound and West have an easy rapport, their comic delivery and physical humour superb. But many audience members will treasure Nenda’s fabulous performance – mature beyond her years, with genius timing.
There's a touch of Planer’s spoof thespian Nicholas Craig in a play about self-absorbed actors who name-drop on an industrial scale "get a lawyer, Daniel Day fucking-hyphen Lewis".
But the script sparkles with bright, clever dialogue that had the audience crying with laughter and it seems the Park has another hit on its hands.
It's Headed Straight Towards Us runs until October 20 at Park Theatre, Finsbury Park.
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