The New Wolsey Young Associates, Party Piece

The New Wolsey Young Associates: Party Piece

The New Wolsey Young Associates, Party Piece

The New Wolsey Young Associates are a fearsomely talented quartet who launch themselves headfirst into Party Piece: a messy, hilarious celebration of house parties – the mornings after and the life ahead for its hungover victims.

Jack, Lorna, Aidan and Steve fling themselves around in gay abandon as they recreate the heady hedonism of teenage drinking, vomiting and sexual awakenings. Each character regales us with an insight into their world with a brutally honest monologue delivered into a microphone (one of which protrudes from a toilet bowl). I don’t think I’ll ever erase the image of a young man finding a tick on the end of his penis from my mind! Rob Salmon’s script has a sharp, acid bite which speaks directly to teenagers and reminds anyone who has ever been one just how intense it felt when trying to break free, fall in love, not make mistakes and generally figure yourself out.

Stylistically, the piece is a cocktail of Skins, Forced Entertainment and stand-up comedy. Physically daring and expertly choreographed, the movement sequences are both funny and impressively athletic. In one sequence Lorna repeatedly vomits into the toilet bowl whilst one of the boys backflips on loop, another crashes into the sofa and the third downs an entire bottle of wine.

The group are charming and compelling performers. Movement and dialogue spills out of them as naturally as the used bottles and cans that spew out of a cupboard door at the top of the show. Performed at 10.30pm it’s a perfect late-night show – get a beer and head to Bedlam for a slice of thoughtful youthful abandon.