The Movie Star tells the story of Dan the Man (Danny Syme) and his quest to make it big in the world of cinema without ever actually speaking a word, with the pre-recorded voice of Dan’s technical adviser and voice coach Steven Hawking (also played by Syme) providing the running commentary.

As a narrative concept it has great potential, the problem it that right from the outset the narrative is neglected. Syme instead elects to use the guise of ‘auditions for film parts’ as a loose way of tying together a series of disjointed audio-visual presentations, film homages and vignettes of physical comedy.

Now, to his credit Syme is a very talented physical performer and makes an effort to provide the audience with a varied mix of performance styles including mime, clowning, dance and other circus styles, bringing to each a commendable amount of energy and athleticism which he maintains throughout the entire hour-long running time of the performance: a feat that is impressive in its own right. However, without any real story arc or character development – with the occasional exception of the abrupt changes facilitated by Hawking’s interjections – Syme relies entirely on his physical comedy to keep his audience engaged and here, unfortunately, his silent performances quickly grow tiresome. 

The audio-visual elements are easily the highlights of the piece. Each presentation is expertly crafted and given its own unique style, making them highly entertaining viewing. In addition they are almost exclusively more relevant to the plot than Dan’s unconnected audition pieces and therefore provide the audience much more to engage with. The standout from among these is Syme’s witty reworking of the famous introduction sequence from the Star Wars films. 

On the whole, the piece doesn’t actually miss by all that much. Syme brings a lot of raw talent as a performer to the stage and he simply needs to channel this into a more focused and narrative driven form in order to get The Movie Star off its feet and turn it into an engaging and satisfying piece of theatre.

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Dan the Man (Danny Syme) is a deft physical comedian and a talented circus performer. The Movie Star dramatises his desire to make it big in the movies, despite his crippling anxiety and inability to get a word out. Dan the Man is accompanied by his voice coach Stephen Hawking (also Danny Syme, in a spot on physical impersonation), who is himself no small expert on stars, and between the two of them they work through a series of challenges that will hopefully help Dan find his cinematic mojo and land him his breakthrough part.

The show is diverse: it moves from clowning and physical humour to acts of skill and acrobatic dexterity.  Syme combines athleticism and precision with delightfully low-status, bumbling characterisation. The show features extensive AV sequences, and the short films that pepper the performance are well-considered and very well produced. There are a number of different moods and genres at play, but the highlight is a gorgeous pastiche of early silent films in which Dan the Man runs through the city in search of a voice and a good dollop of self-confidence.

The component parts of the show are mostly strong but the overall narrative conceit and some of the tricks need further development, and I came away a bit confused as to the overall intention of the piece. By the end of The Movie Star I can certainly see where it is all heading: the nervous, shy actor’s search for a voice, both literal and figurative, leads him through various genres and emotional states (and, perhaps, auditions?) before he finally finds a meaningful (and quite silly) cinematic raison d’être. It’s certainly a strong concept.

However, this isn’t signposted well enough throughout the show. The tonal shifts that come about due to the disparate nature of the show’s scenes are sometimes quite abrupt, which is exacerbated by the way that circus theatre tends to marry individual set pieces into a coherent whole. As such, some of the scenes, while certainly funny, don’t appear to contribute to the character’s overall goal. A more deliberate tying together of the show’s various narrative and thematic strands and a greater emphasis on the character’s ambition (and what gets in its way) would make for a much more satisfying storytelling experience.

This show has a great deal of potential and it is often very funny, but in its current form it feels more like a proof of concept or a work in progress than a comprehensive package. I really hope to see it again in a much more polished format, as it’s both original and entertaining.

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