Review: Jon Culshaw is Les Dawson – Flying High

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Even if you are unfamiliar with Les Dawson and his place in the 70s and 80s comedy pantheon, this play by Olivier Award-winning writer Tim Withnall and performed by the impressionist Jon Culshaw is well worth a visit.

Deliberate mangling of his piano renditions was one of the many things for which Dawson was known, though he drew heavily on mother-in-law jokes, dressing up as one half of Cissie and Ada with Roy Barraclough, and replaced Terry Wogan as host of television game show Blankety Blank.

He was less well-known as a talented pianist and novelist. This play is a clever and affectionate attempt to address these misconceptions and to show the contradictions between the TV star and the real person.

The whistle-stop biography charts his slow rise to fame, through early experiences of boxing that shaped his bulldog-chewing-a-wasp style facial expressions, playing piano during National Service and his early failure as a cabaret artist.

Only when he gives up hope and falls asleep drunk before the second half of a show, does he accidentally hit on the style that would eventually make him a household name. However, it took more years of rejection before he finally made his TV debut on 70s talent show Opportunity Knocks. 

Culshaw puts the failures and the frustrations centre stage, but also captures Dawson’s comic timing and brings out all the humour in the excerpts of Dawson’s stand-up that Withnall has woven into the script. Bob Golding’s direction and the use of a large TV screen add a further dimension allowing Culshaw to take on a range of characters and break up the central monologue. 

It’s a glimpse into who Dawson really was, which is all that can be expected in an hour long show, but it’s one that shows there was more to him than some may realise and that makes you want to find out more.

Assembly George Square, to 28 August (not 16^th)

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