Bad Lads at Live Theatre Review
Image by Von Fox
Written by Stacy for Theatre & Tonic
Disclaimer: Gifted tickets in exchange for an honest review
The air was already pulsing at Live Theatre before the first line was even spoken and Bad Lads doesn’t ease you in, oh no...it grabs you by the shoulders and sets you moving to its beat. This isn't theatre that tells a story so much as it conducts one. Every word, every gesture, every breath felt connected to a distinct rhythm, as though the play itself had a pulse that the three performers - Danny Raynor (Older Jackie), Robin Paley Yorke (Younger Jackie), and Craig Painting (Signing Jackie and integrated performance interpreter) - shared between them like a living metronome.
The narrative tells the story of Jackie, one man, seen through three selves and grappling with the echoes of his past and his time at Medomsley Youth Detention Centre in County Durham. Through the interplay of Older Jackie, Younger Jackie, and Signing Jackie, the narrative traces a cycle of violence and identity, exploring how boyhood bravado hardens into adult regret. Memory and reflection overlap as time folds in on itself, and what emerges is less a linear story than a rhythmic reckoning...a man confronting who he was, who he is, and who he might still become.
The direction was nothing short of choreography. It wasn’t blocking - it was a dance....movement and dialogue that folded into each other so fluidly that it felt less like acting and more like composition. The three Jackies, past, present, and signing, were bound by a rhythm that felt instinctive, organic, unbroken. Their synchronicity was astonishing with gestures that echoed, phrases looped, rhythms overlapping...separating like harmonies in a song - not a single beat was dropped and the trio were entirely in tune with one another, each movement carrying the pulse of the last.
The writing was fierce, poetic, jarring and raw as the narrative explored issues of masculinity and the uneasy inheritance of violence didn’t unfold in a straight line...it pulsed and moved with breath and heartbeat, alternating between sharp bursts of confession and quieter spaces of reflection. The language had rhythm as it accelerated and slowed...sometimes tumbling out with percussive urgency, sometimes lingering in silences that said as much as the words. It was a story told through tempo as much as text.
What set Bad Lads apart, though, was its profound sense of inclusivity that wasn't just woven around the piece, but into its very fabric - and rooted deeply in the ethos of Graeae Theatre Company itself. Craig Painting’s presence as an integrated BSL performer wasn’t supplementary, it was central. His signing was as expressive and narrative-driven as speech itself, transforming accessibility into artistry. The signing didn’t just translate...it interpreted, expanded, and deepened meaning, working in rhythm with the other Jackies to create a visual and physical poetry. The visual text projected above the stage also played its own role. Never intrusive, and always in conversation with the performance, amplifying the story rather than simplifying it.
By the time the final rhythm slowed to stillness, it was clear that Bad Lads had achieved something rare...a merging of form and feeling, inclusion and expression, all in perfect time. It was poetry with muscle, direction with pulse, language with body. Theatre like this doesn’t just tell a story...it shares it, wholly and rhythmically, in every voice, every sign, every breath and I left that theatre changed.
Trigger warnings: descriptions of physical and sexual assault.
Bad Lads plays at Live Theatre until 11th October
★★★★★
