Coming Up For Air is an entertaining and tightly paced, classic from George Orwell, where we follow an ordinary man, bobbing in the water, with nostalgia for days gone by.
Split into four themes carefully intertwined by George (Hal Cruttenden) they are Disillusionment, Nostalgia, Deceit and Guilt.
Disillusioned with his current mundane existence, George is left wondering if this is all that life is, a series of disappointments and missed chance.
A secret win on the horses gives George the opportunity to escape briefly to his home town. We are then led on a nostalgic journey of George’s childhood, fishing, his parents, well known in the community, becoming a member of ‘the gang’. His trip leads to disappointment, the town through progress is now unrecognisable, disappointment at faded memories, expectation that his family even himself would be remembered, by somebody. Even his childhood home and family business, closed, converted, progress and change not quite expected. Guilt, eventually calls an abrupt end to Georges trip.
The threat of World War II is cleverly interspersed throughout the tale, giving us an insight into life on the cusp of war, propaganda, bombers seen in the sky and Georges vision of things to come.
Well executed, with no other cast, nor set to speak of, the audience is drawn into George’s life. Do we empathise, is there in all of us that longing for the past, or should George be happy with what he as got. Memories in particular from childhood are always viewed through rose tinted glasses and perhaps best left unturned?
Highly recommended.
4/5 
Michael Bulman
