By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK?: ***

WHEN? Friday 3 October, runs through 22 November 2025 RUNTIME: 90 minutes (no interval)

Heartstopper‘s Locke plays Jake who is being trained by Ruaridh Mollica’s Chris to work the nightshift in the warehouse of superstore CostCo stacking shelves.

• Read on for reasons including how Heartstopper fans won’t feel shortchanged by a drama which offers 1 of its stars navigating similar subject matter to the show that made his name

Jake has been diagnosed with Huntingdon’s disease, an inherited genetic condition that is hard to treat, and has fled from the safety of his home town after splitting with a boyfriend and instead finds himself following in the footsteps of a colonial explorer relative to the titular Clarkston.

Chris takes a shine to Jake and we learn he is estranged from his drug addict mother, dreams of studying creative writing after applying to a prestigious out of state college and is less comfortable with his sexuality than Jake.

Viewers of Netflix’s Heartstopper will feel happy with the set up and it was the actors other than its star who impressed us most in this drama about 2 lonely people developing a platonic friendship as the odds are stacked against them.

There’s an awkward attempt at sex that they fumble before walking down the path to friendship which will strike a chord with anyone whose enthusiasm for experience was betrayed by their lack of it.

Director Joe Serio gives us 6 steps down from the stage which the actors use to help us feel more involved in their developing friendship and there’s even onstage seating for audience members who want to be more in the thick of it but we felt happiest with our conventional row 3 seats and the cast facing us during the majority of the run time.

Sophie Melville as Chris’ mum Trisha felt the most real character as she portrayed the dichotomy of a woman who is aware she’s let down the son she loves but can’t quite give up the drugs she craves to escape her working class world, threatening her relationship with her son.

We weren’t familiar with the work of Mollica before but his Chris is skilfully drawn and it’s his journey that we were most enchanted by.

The problem with Clarkston is its script by Samuel D. Hunter which struggles to hold our attention even for the 90 minutes without interval it stretches to here.

The introduction of the idea about exploration and colonialism feels crowbarred in and, while interesting, is never really explored with the depth needed for us to understand why it’s there.

Not a lot happens, there’s a lot of talking but most importantly though fans of Heartstopper won’t feel shortchanged by a drama which offers 1 of its stars navigating similar subject matter to the show that made his name.

• Main pictures via Facebook courtesy Clarkston Play Tickets
• Have you seen a Joe Locke show before and what did you think of this 1? Let us know what you thought in the comments below
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