Life by the Throat

James Joseph Patrick Keogh has spent his life running. Starting at school, then into care, drugs, marriage, parenthood and bad choices. He’s ricocheted from one situation to another, from a child in Ireland to an adult in Manchester, and we’re party to all of it. Writer and actor Eve Steele takes an hour to give us a life.

This one-person show compresses Keogh’s history, following his route from wide-eyed optimism to repeated mistakes. Steele’s writing is a constant "I am", the present tense as a slippery slope played out beat by beat. In tracksuit bottoms and running shoes, her Keogh is a nervy, volatile figure.

The gender swap of Steele’s performance works to give Keogh’s story a freshness and raw voice. Whether pacing, dancing or waking with a hangover, she imbues her dialogue with an urgency that has a corner-of-the-room intimacy. Director Ed Jones keeps his production fluid and jittery, but it's still when it matters.

But the Underbelly Big Belly swamps a piece that exists in moments in grimy hotel rooms, stolen cars and prison cells. It strands Steele, rather than bringing us in close. And the litany of problems that befalls Keogh starts to deaden their impact.

When the lights slowly begin to dim and Steele’s voice cracks, Life by the Throat really grips you by the scruff. But there’s a relentlessness to it, an all-purpose pile-up of misery, that leaves Keogh feeling more like a salutary warning than running at his own pace.