Review: Lost Soul 2 at Liverpool's Royal Court ***1/2

Smigger, Donna, Terry and Pat have been hitting the Liverpool dancefloor for the best part of two decades – and Dave Kirby’s Motown-loving mid-lifers are showing no sign of fatigue.

Lost Soul 2 – Smigger’s Wrecked Head, to give it its full title, made its first appearance on the Royal Court stage back in 2019 as a sequel to the plasterer-turned-playwright’s earlier smash hit comedy Lost Soul.

Returning for a summer run, Kirby has revisited his popular, and populist piece of live theatre to tweak some of the plot’s myriad cultural references and has updated its clubbing action from Liverpool institution Smokie Mo’s to Rope Walks’ in vogue Soul Train.

But the core preoccupations of its quartet of protagonists remain reassuringly the same.

When daughter Amy (Jennifer Hynes, making her Royal Court debut) returns from Ibiza with a baby on the way and a shady Scally boyfriend (fellow newbie Michael Hawkins) in tow, mum Donna (Lindzi Germain) embraces nana-hood with enthusiasm.

But for 70s disco dad Smigger (Andrew Schofield) the arrival of grandson Fernando sparks some deep introspection and brings fears to the fore that he finds hard to get his ‘wrecked head’ around.

As Smigger, Schofield - a master craftsman when it comes to hurt bemusement - punctuates Lost Soul 2’s broad, bawdy comedy with moments of disquieting melancholy.

And there’s also an added layer of poignancy to this production.

The late Jake Abrahams made the role of Terry very much his own in both Lost Soul and this sequel, and he still has a presence on stage with his photo on the mantelpiece in Smigger and Donna’s front room, and also – I have on excellent authority – behind the bar in the show’s Soul Train.

Above: 'Shane' the Soul Train barman (Lenny Woods) and Smigger (Andrew Schofield). Top: Donna (Lindzi Germain), Pat (Catherine Rice), Smigger (Andrew Schofield) and Terry (Paul Duckworth). Photos by Andrew AB Photography.

It’s not easy to step into another actor’s shoes, but Royal Court (semi) regular Paul Duckworth succeeds in adding his own stamp to the role. He imbues the character with a knowing comic edge and his scenes with Catherine Rice as Terry’s glamorous, good-time partner Pat and with best mate Smigger feel comfortable and natural.

Meanwhile Lenny Woods also returns as Soul Train’s delightfully dopey barman, a role he’s inhabited with expressive glee since Lost Soul’s earliest days on the much smaller Unity stage.

Under the experienced guiding hands of director Bob Eaton and choreographer Bev Norris-Edwards, the action rolls back and forth in entertaining fashion through Jocelyn Meall’s revolving triptych set from home to holiday to soultastic watering hole.

But while there have been efforts to tighten it, it’s action that still stretches to almost two-and-a-half hours; the second half could reasonably take a 10-minute trim to solve some buffering in the plot.

And on press night at least, despite a roistering detour to Prestatyn Pontins, elsewhere the first half felt oddly underpowered.