I went to a catholic high school. In our last year, I was involved in some sort of mass confessional event in our school assembly hall. It was a cross between speed dating/ drive thru purging. What a lovely way to mark the end of one period of education as you prepare to head into your next.

However, whilst I can’t remember what I confessed, I can remember that the Priest I got ‘matched with’, didn’t even take off his anorak throughout the experience. God bless ‘The Anorak’ as he’ll forever be known in my memory bank.

Hector who reaches the end of his employment as a spy for a dangerous organization and must confess his sins. This surreal psychological thriller follows Hector navigating his psyche and traversing the line between life and death. As we follow Hector’s trials and tribulations, this piece is designed to entertain audiences with a deeper layer of meaning of men’s mental health.

Part of the wonderful GM Fringe, and directed by Gabe Keogh and Alfie Randell, there were lots of facets to this production which both worked for my appreciation and sometimes worked against it as I desperately tried to keep up in the moment whilst battling to simultaneously take a step back in order for the detail to cloud revealing the bigger picture.

The blurring between flashback, reality, psychological, prophetic, retrospective, light and dark, serious and funny was all there. This is by no means a criticism. There are some texts which are linear with a start, middle, end, all tied up in a lovely bow at curtain down. And of course there’s much to be enjoyed here.

Miserable as it sounds, I’m not particularly a ‘and they all lived happily ever after’ kinda gal, and what gets my juices flowing (ugh awful phrase), is something that pushes you out of your comfort zone, and essentially makes you work a little for your appreciation. A collab, if you like, between artist and audience.

This play I appreciated piecemeal throughout but need longer to reflect on what I’ve seen. This is true of some of the finer things I’ve seen which for me is much better than the moment you leave your theatre seat, it is but a distant memory already.

Everyone is entitled to their own experience and there will be those who walked away with the penny immediately dropped as to how the different elements played against each other to land that singular message. I actually doubt there is a singular message given the layers and granularity to to the piece. I think I’d appreciate an explicit epilogue for this one or actually a repeat showing. But for now, I’ll highlight a couple of key thoughts whilst I continue to reflect.

• We see Hector’s first day at work. Spy or civil servant? Aren’t they one and the same thing anyway? Having dipped my toe in the civil service water for a short period some years ago, I felt seen watching this awkward office scene play out!
• The three actors (directors Gabe and Alfie along with Will Slack), worked hard during those 45+ minutes. Two of them, ominously stand waiting for us, staring straight ahead, as we enter the theatre and take our seats. I don’t know if you’ve ever been to the theatre at The King’s Arms (and if not, why not), but it gives pretty good atmosphere. This, along with the black and white, fever dream sequence playing out behind them on a screen, ramped matters up.
• There was a blonde wig at play that basically stole the show. The crudity of it, wholly on purpose I have no doubt, both glorious and gruesome, and something I shall think about at least once a day until the end of time.
• Shame. Shame and guilt. As my intro indicates, I’ve flirted with catholicism since an early age – whilst I left the party pretty much after I left high school, the party bag of shame and guilt I took home definitely seems to be impossible to throw away. Ooh dark. And there’s nothing like the end of an era, a milestone, to set the self-critical cogs whirring as indeed we see played out on stage.

So what I ask myself is, what on stage was real in Hector’s working life, which aspects bled into his private life. Which of the scenarios presented took place, which did not but linger long enough in his psyche to cause damage just in the what could have been?

Whilst my reaction piece may not feel fully formed (probably because it isn’t), what this is is a download of thoughts, feelings and questions which whilst may not be conducive to a pithy blog with a killer punchline, are authentic and a work in progress.

Actually let’s give this a maybe not killer punchline, but a topical one.

So the play took place on the same evening as England were set to play Argentina in the World Cup semi-final. There was never a moment where I would allow this to impact on my intent to see this production, but did present a conundrum as to how I organised my evening.

And so with meticulous planning and an overly expensive Uber to secure decent seats for the first half (come back Metrolink please), my plans took me to The New Oxford for most of the first half, with a hop, skip and a jump over to The King’s Arms during half time, ready to switch focus.

And so to that topical punchline and sign-off. As you may know, I don’t do stars in my review posts, but instead I will say, The Confession validated my unpatriotic decision to abandon my support of the England football team mid-match, and I truly regret nothing (unlike, perhaps, a certain Mr Tuchel – the tyke).

For more details of this year’s GM Fringe, visit Whats on – Greater Manchester Fringe

Look out for future work from R&K theatre.