Take a moment to recall a point in your life when you did exactly the right thing at the right time. Unfolding Theatre Company ask this of their audience in their subtly powerful one-man production Best in the World. It is an inspirational hour that explores what it is like to be the best at something, told through the medium of darts.
Not being a dart aficionado myself I wrongly assumed that this show would have to work hard to engage me. But the humble delicacy with which Alex Elliot delivers the piece meant I was addicted to his every word from the beginning.
The piece is in the form of a seminar, told with the use of text and video projection, audience interaction, and a huge dartboard which straddles the centre of the stage. Elliot takes us through his passion for darts, the stories of the best sportspeople in the world, and the process of attaining and experiencing greatness. Elliot also includes snippets of his own life, his career and the death of his father.
It is the warmth of his performance and the beauty of the metaphors that he seamlessly weaves into the text that makes this production so touching. The fact that some of the metaphors change and are improvised each night makes his performance all the more impressive. A resonant example of which is when he speaks of throwing a dart – the decision to let go at the precise moment, to do the right thing at the right time – as a reflection on our personal growth.
Director Annie Rigby has done a wonderful job of making the show very personal. When we enter we are given an inspirational banana and are told to hold onto it in case our energy levels flag and impede our ability to achieve greatness as an audience. Elliot asks us gently to be involved in the performance, enquiring who would be willing to contribute by showing signs of support, cheering, nodding or perhaps writing something down. He instructs us in the creation of a paper dart, and on it we right an example of a moment when we did the right thing at the right time. We throw these onto the stage and Elliot shares some of them. Later he invites some audience members up onto the stage to throw a dart and practise that skill of letting go, and as we cheer on our fellow spectators we, the audience, feel ourselves to be an important part of the piece.
By the end of an hour in Alex Elliot’s charming company we have been given much to reflect on. I couldn’t help but feel that a concise message was missing at the end, something a little more concrete to walk away with, but in the days that have passed since I saw the show the accumulation of all that it offered has stayed with me and has given me much to consider. Overall this is a superbly poignant and introspective piece of theatre, a small gift to its audience that resounds with a gentle greatness.