Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh
It’s well known that men often love their cars. A car can be such a powerful symbol. Automatic, autodidactic, autocratic, autoerotic – Wilf is a car and is all of these.
Wilf as a play is a vehicle for a lot of really good gags, both visual and wise-cracking. Overall it is possibly too long and a somewhat overstretched limousine, but for a fun night out at the theatre (possibly one of the few we have enjoyed and will be able to enjoy for the foreseeable future) Wilf has a key to happiness and a good time.
It’s a surreal, far fetched, sex-infused story (not for those whose wheels would be a Popemobile or a Mini minor). Michael Dylan gives a frenetic performance as Calvin (the name must be ironic!) who lives and breathes sex as a way to cope with rejection and loss. Irene Allen is Thelma, his long suffering driving instructor cum psychotherapist who for 111 failed driving tests steers him through life’s highways and byways, it’s cul de sacs and blocked entries.
Their energy sparks off each other, but it is Neil John Gibson as Frank and others who has the most versatile parts in the play, turning his costumes to various parts from fireman to Esther Perel. It’s a romp, a journey, a mad escapist race.
It’s just what we need as we face Christmas 2021.
Traverse, 14-24th December