Few figures are more dependably funny than the delusional, disappointed actor, acclaim and self-respect forever and tantalisingly out of his grasp. Ricky Gervais gave us one version in Extras. Now Graham Dickson takes time out from his improv career (he performs, as have so many other great soloists before him, with Austentatious) to give us this one-man offering.
He might equally have borrowed his title from Bebe Cave’s The Screen Test elsewhere on the fringe. The conceit is that Dickson’s show never gets going, because his agent keeps calling, inviting him to audition for a superior production. So the show is paused, and Dickson – or the charming, burbling neurotic he plays here – records a self-tape, with help from willing members of his audience.
