“Thank God I have my wife to go home to! All the pain of my dating years came flooding back to me. Although it was only for an hour it truly made me remember all of the torment and excitement of being in love in my twenties.”

Alistair Pearce – Principle of Rose Bruford College  

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"I don’t know much really about modern theatre. Normally, I fear that moment at the end of such performances, when I have to pretend to have an opinion. But I can honestly say that this piece struck a chord with me. It was not pretentious in the slightest, just honest. It felt like I was watching my every emotion relayed to me on stage.”

Sahar Elize  

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“This was a staggeringly orginal piece of theatre... [It’s] sheer compassion and understanding of humanity in its truest sense, reduced me to nothing more than a blubbering fool when the lights dimmed, leaving me with an image that will haunt me of its familiarity for years to come… The world needs to know about Smoke Yourself Slim.”

Sam West – Piccadilly Theatre and Freelance journalist  

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The Lion & Unicorn Pub in Kentish Town is a fairly daggy place. It's smokey, and it has that sour smell that hangs in the carpet of old pubs. It has one thing that endears it to me, however. There's a theatre upstairs, and it's a 45 bummer with raised seating, a dressing room and separate toilets. £350 quid a week and 40% of ticket sales, or £500 quid straight up. Most small young companies take the former option.

Right now, the Lion and Unicorn Theatre is the venue for a show called "Cigarettes and Excuses" by a young company called Smoke Yourself Slim. Yes, they love their cigarettes, and the very modest ticket price of £7.00 includes a dose of secondary lung cancer. However, it's one of the best shows I've ever seen.

This small group of 21 to 25 year old drama/dance/music graduates has come up with a concept for a show that I would have formerly dismissed as "wanky", but I have fallen for, head over heels. I've been boring mates stupid about how good it is. Now it's your turn.

In a nation where popular culture doesn't distinguish between talent and celebrity, and lead roles are given out as prizes on panel shows, it's fantastic to find young people who still believe in what it's all about; good ideas, ability, hard work and yes, talent. Smoke Yourself Slim have a lot of it, and this little black duck is very proud to be doing their lighting and helping out with stage management. After being out of theatre for a few years, I have now returned home.

It's impossible to describe this show in a way that does it justice. It's not a Play, or a Musical, or Performance Art in any of themselves. The company's "antitheatre" background steers it away from putting things into boxes, under rules and boundaries, and separation between performers and audience. See what I mean about "wanky"? It's not at all.

In what I can best describe as a "montage", the cast of five combines dance, soliloquy, ordinary conversations, famous movie scenes, arguments, chatting to the audience, and even a drinking game, with a musical soundtrack and gentle lighting. During a scene about speed dating, you find yourself watching two seperate, fast conversations at two tables at once, with music playing, and at first you fear you will miss something, but as a bell sounds and the actors rotate to their next partners, you soon realise that the whole point is to hear snatches of conversation from the room, and by the time it moves on, to a real conversation, you will hear only that conversation.

Based on relationships, it is largely unscripted, and that which is written has been written by the very people speaking, and the director, who can also be credited with the original idea, and the Sound tech work. Sometimes they interact, and sometimes they float about concurrently, to very well chosen music. It's highly emotional, from extremely funny to pit-of-the-stomach emptiness, and sometimes, members of the cast just break down crying. From my position next to the audience, I can sometimes hear people in the audience openly sobbing. Some nights, it's not really sad at all.

Currently, the show can take between 65 and 75 minutes to run, depending on what floats them along on any given night. Audience involvement is a very big part of the show, and I have never seen an audience more willing to participate, due to the comfort level this clever troupe gives them from the start. No one has to leave their seat. They just chat. With such an organic nature, (that's me being wanky again) the show is bound to vary, and could seriously crash were it not for the strong, brave actors. On one hand it's tempting to say "Do what you did on Tuesday. That was the best yet, so keep it."

On the other, I wouldn't have witnessed Thursday night, which out of the blue, managed to include the best scene I have ever seen on any stage, in my life, and I have seen the inside of a few theatres! The audience were riveted and silent at the end, the only sound came from those who were weeping, then they exploded in applause, bringing the exhausted actors back for a second bow, and then the room rang for half an hour with incessant chatter. No one wanted to leave. One girl; the youngest actor; had hit a new level and was visibly shaken. She said to me "F* k! It's scary to believe we can have this much power! I felt sorry for the audience."

She will never forget it, and she will spend most of her time yearning for moments like that because that is what we strive for, and they are few and far between.

I've been really affected by this show (can you tell?) and some readers may just assume that I am biased, being on the inside, but it's important to remember that I didn't have anything to do with putting this together. It was finished and ready by the time I arrived, All I did was show them how to put it into a theatre, rather than a studio type venue.

I'm proud of Smoke Yourself Slim, and I hope to do more with them. Sure, as an older bloke, I vicariously live through their younger selves, but that's no different from directing actors who quite simply, can act better than I can, sing better, look better, dance better, so they may as well be doing it, and I'll do the production stuff. I'm doing this because I love it, because the good stuff rubs off, and because you can teach an old dog new tricks....

Martin Welsh