Bonding

‘My name is Lewis. Stephen Lewis,’ says the man in a tux on stage. After performing the famous strut and pose of James Bond firing his gun down the barrel of the camera, the audience is fired up with a quick popularity contest of which actor was the best at the iconic British spy. In the end, it’s a shout-off between Connery and Craig, with the Scotsman pulling through.

Cyril Blake’s one-man show comes hot from Edinburgh, playing a guy struggling between the 1960s ‘masculinity’ of his father and the twenty-first century ideals of what being a man now represents. The character is called Stephen Lewis – presumably a nod-and-a-wink joke to the now-deceased comedy actor of the same name, whose famous character from the TV series ‘On the Buses’ was called Cyril Blake.

Lewis’ story is that of a grandson of a Yorkshire coalminer, a son of a mechanic – who had no interest in being either, finding a vocation instead in performing. There was little in common between father and son, except for the love of Bond films, so the story of Lewis’ growth is told in terms of Bond’s evolving character and revolving actors. His father was Connery-Bond, he grew up wanting to be Brosnan-Bond – but Blake gives us humorously bad impressions of all of them, with Scottish and Irish accents, complete with way too many dad-jokes and 1980s innuendo.

Lewis’ growth to enlightenment hasn’t gone far enough – if you have to justify a change in your world attitudes by adding the word ‘apparently’, you don’t really believe it. Yet Blake makes him charming, particularly when he moves between Bond and Lewis, and especially in the rare moments where Lewis’ bonding is with his father, on the rare occasions he cries. Blake’s ability to tear up and choke his way through this intimacy is excellent, even though it can feel like we’re sneaking a peek at a therapy session.

By the end of this history of societal attitudes from Bond/Lewis, and confessions from the latter, the audience is bonding too – Blake succeeds in showing us that Lewis has a heart and knows how to love.

Review by Mark Wickett

Click here to read our Adelaide Fringe 2025 reviews