"a blissfully funny rites of passage comedy"
The Daily Telegraph

**** The Times

" Melvin is played with admirable directness and raw, bruising humour"
The Stage online

"The evening was marked by fine comic acting from the three cast members....Cuttingly funny"
The Hull Daily Mail

"had me laughing so much I nearly fell off my seat"
The Advertiser

"The excellent Marc Bolton is appallingly amusing"
**** Whats On Stage

"1995 – the summer of Scatman, Whigfield and ………….Melvin!

When you’re an out of work actor, how do you earn enough money to take the love of your life on holiday? Well, if you’re Dave you get a job working with Melvin cleaning the muck off fanny clips and dog’s dicks in an otherwise empty hangar in Lincolnshire.

Thus begins the hilarious journey through the summer of 1995 where Dave meets Melvin, the man who pees himself laughing at his mates who always seem to end up having gruesome accidents whenever he’s around.

The characters we meet include:
Sarah – Dave’s housemate and unknowing love of his life
Angie – The blonde secretary who’s always attending courses and loves Mel Gibson
Dave’s Mum and Dad – Always bickering
Bob the Knob – The manager of the empty hangar in Lincolnshire
Debs – The one-eyed ex-wife of Melvin (you know like that singer - Gabrielle)

The play takes us from poignancy to side-splitting hilarity over the course of the two hours, during which we learn pearls of wisdom according to Melvin, such as ‘football’s for fannies’, how to pull birds (in Hull, not Scunthorpe cos ‘they’re all either harder than you or grunt’) and all about the man-face.

The man-face being the talk of the interval in the theatre bar and no doubt the young men attending the performance secretly practicing at home later in preparation for Saturday night.

The play was fantastically written and performed by the cast of three, keeping the audience enthralled from start to finish, leaving them with the knowledge that they’ll remember Melvin and his man-face for a long time to come.

My Fantastic Summer is a play we can all relate to as we all know a Melvin or Dave and how many times have we been in love with someone and been unable to tell them?

If you’re looking for a night out with guaranteed belly laughs then this is the play to see. But be warned – you may need some paracetamols at the ready as your sides will be aching afterwards!!

Review by John Bardsley, Hull Truck audience and ARCO staff member
Thursday 25th January 2007

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