AS the audience waited at the Nuffield, a sweaty guy on a bike turned up with a guitar on his back, and invited the crowd to follow him to the Arlott bar.
Outside, the three other members of his rock band were cavorting around and letting off a balloon into the skies over Southampton.
Everyone wandered into the bar, and the four-piece band One Trick Pony mounted the stage and blasted into Mustang Sally, Brown Eyed Girl and We Are Family with semi-professional polish.
However, half-way through Brown Sugar, the lead guitarist’s mobile phone rings, and the tensions and recriminations begin.
Ignoring the band’s set-list, the troubled guitarist decides to play his original number, with mournfully agonised lyrics and distorted fuzz guitar. This incurs the band’s wrath, and during Can’t Live, the guitarist has a nervous breakdown.
In the interval the band have a public row, chase around the audience, and the lead guitarist quits.
As they try to continue the gig with the ironic Best Days Of Our Lives, the previously smiley girl bass player – once married to the lead guitarist – is now crying, and during their “marriage song” First Cut Is The Deepest, she flees the stage, chased by the pleading keyboard player.
This is a unique, hilarious and touching theatrical experience.
Will the band complete the gig? Will the couple reconcile? Come and find out!
Runs until tonight. Also at Fareham’s Ashcroft Centre on June 4 and 5.
Brendan McCusker
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