Hilarious, nostalgic and subtly transformative - Jack Docherty’s ‘David Bowie and Me’ is a wonderful comfort that will warm every inch of your heart.
The title of Docherty’s play suggests a sort of tribute to Bowie which would reminisce over his life and career - but much to my surprise, it ended up being so much more than that. Swanning onto the stage in a large patterned cape (later to be discovered that his mother made, with Jack’s reference picture of a classic Bowie outfit), Docherty’s wonderful, boisterous energy is immediately infectious. Jack starts at the beginning of his fandom tale, guiding us through his messy youth as though the audience is merely catching up with a dear friend.
Amidst a throng of well crafted jokes and belly-aching anecdotes (his grandfather’s funeral wherein Jack comments on the fact that, even in death, his grandfather was in denial about his height - having ordered a coffin that was far too large), there are some beautifully tragic moments that pass in the blink of an eye. As Docherty recounts his nostalgia, he comments on the later tragic elements of life that he was yet to be exposed to in his teen years. As he speaks on Bowie, Jack mentions that ‘Bowie was to later die of liver cancer… but I didn’t know that yet.’ The depth in which it pulls the audience back to the simpler years of their youth, where the many tragedies we all endure in life were yet to happen.
Yet, amongst the heart-wrenching observations of a person’s life and in the same breath, Jack pulls us out of the tragedy and into the light. Docherty comments with passion that life is ‘random and rich’ and that we must all hold onto the excitement of the obsession we once felt with art and people and things as we did when we were teenagers.
‘Jack Docherty: David Bowie and Me’ performs for one more night at the Soho Theatre before making its way to the Edinburgh Fringe.
Review: Bibi Lucille