My Friend Travis takes the William Tell overture to places you’d never dream of at Camden Fringe 2024 at the Hen & Chickens Theatre
“He’s very sweet, he’s very kind, he’s very awkward”
At the risk of production spoilers, it only feels right and proper that it only took about 20 minutes of my first 2024 Camden Fringe show for its first inflatable penis to appear – what else is fringe theatre for?! It pops up in Samuel Winner’s My Friend Travis, an intriguing one-hander that combines some seriously dark subject matter with some highly unexpected presentational tools (unless, of course, you were already expecting an inflatable penis).
Travis is one of James’ best friends but he is an anxious sort. So much so that instead of coming to the annual summer barbeque that James hosts for his friends and family, Travis comes an hour earlier to avoid the people. This year though, Travis hasn’t turned up yet. And so James starts to talk, and reminisce, and to ponder, and to spiral into thoughts and fears of what might have and what might yet still happen.
Winner’s performance quivers with intensity, perhaps almost too much so at times, though I should note this was the first performance. Details of a unique friendship come thick and fast and songs and stories spring from left-field – chess games, trips to Ascot, hotel conferences, the aforementioned inflatable, the William Tell overture getting the lyrical makeover you didn’t know it needed – all pushing to .
