In a run-down, crumbling seaside town, a fading comic is forced to confront his estranged ex-partner – a deranged recluse still fixated on their long-gone distant heyday—in a tale of ambition, guilt, and the ghosts of British show business.
Billy Bash, who once gloried in being labelled Britain’s Third Most Offensive Comedian, refuses to acknowledge he is in the twilight of his career. His brash brand of humour has remained unchanged since his 1980s family-friendly double act alongside Clifford Biddle came crashing down. Billy continued as a solo act; Cliff went to prison. But now, the final night of Billy’s tour has brought him to the run-down seaside resort of Saltmouth, to visit his former partner, who still stews in resentful obscurity.
Truths from their shared past resurface in Cliff’s storm-lashed maisonette, and the fine line between madness, guilt, and the supernatural blurs, eventually spiralling into a dark, yet farcical nightmare.
The Double Act is an “Appallingly funny” (Daily Telegraph) and outrageously dark comedy by Mark Jagasia at the Arcola Theatre that combines biting humour with gothic madness and explores the value of laughter, the true price of ambition, and the demons we can never outrun.