REVIEW: BROKEN by Matthew Lyon at Riverside Studios until June 15th 2025

‘Lush & ribald, a swoon of Shakespearean slang.’ ★★★★

It’s the oldest story in the book. Boy meets girl; boy loses girl. It’s a cliché, nothing new but nonetheless devastating when it happens. The boulevard of broken dreams is a well-trodden path, in art and life, but this interpretation is fast, funny, and fresh. One man, skinhead geezer, shiny dome, spray-on jeans, red braces, the writer of this piece (Matthew Lyon) is also the alpha male who falls for the young woman in a little denim skirt with red flowers in her hair. (Laura Maxwell) 

In “a SodaStream of gilded beams” they lock eyes on a tube, Last Tango in Shepherds Bush. The arc unfurls: love, sex, dreams, connection until the rot sets in. Broken presents the particulars of this relationship in West London, with sticky duvets and a mountain of fast-food wrappers. The initial idealism and fantasy, just looking at her gives him “eyegasms” is set against the disillusion and reality of two individuals who so wanted to become their own rhyming couplet. Inevitably, it all finishes with “boo hoo eyes and lamenting sighs.”

There’s some wildly entertaining physical theatre in Broken, accompanied by the playful piano keys of silent cinema but it’s the language that sets it apart as something unique and enjoyably different. The entire 75 minutes is told in verse, his perspective and hers. Ribald and lush, it’s a swoon of Shakespearean slang delivered with the proletariat vowels of Alex’s Nadsat from A Clockwork Orange. Fans of poetry and the Bard will enjoy the verbal footnotes and references to many classic plays and poems scattered throughout.

Impressively crafted and well-paced, the mood chops and changes as the relationship runs its course. Alongside the many laugh-out loud scenes, are a few that are genuinely moving which explore the painful solitude of a fresh extraction. There’s a real rapport between these two performers. Lauren Maxwell who has toured internationally with mime, circus and clown performances sparkles as a posing, posturing, pint-sized pin-up, the perfect complement to his wide swagger and blokeish demeanour.

Broken by Matthew Lyon has been treading the boards for seven years and last year won the Best Writing award at the Bitesize Festival, 2024. Now at the Riverside for only a few days more, catch it while thee can.

BROKEN by Matthew Lyon at Riverside Studios until June 15th 2025

Box office

https://riversidestudios.co.uk/see-and-do/broken-166501/