Joe Armstrong Fansite

How Love Is Spelt

Date: 29 Sept - 23 October 2004
Theatre: Bush Theatre
Director: Mike Bradwell
Role: Joe

Confusingly, Joe plays the part of Joe, with whom the main character Peta has a one-night stand. Lucy Powell in Time Out London, describes "the ebullient, gregarious conviction of the brilliant supporting cast, with Joe Armstrong and the wonderful Joanne Pearce among them." Alastair Macauley in the Financial Times also compliments many of the supporting actors, Joe among them, saying "you cannot believe they are acting because every line darts out with such immediacy." Fiona Mountford in the Evening Standard mentions "a succession of superb performances from the six-strong cast. Joe Armstrong's Joe could chat-up for England."

Many of the reviews comment on the opening scene between Peta and Joe. A review in the British Theatre Guide said, "We first encounter Peta, portrayed with feeling by newcomer Kay Lyon, on the morning after a one-night stand with Joe, well played by Joe Armstrong. He is a mouthy, cockney Jack-the-lad who regards sticking around in the morning as the measure of a long relationship. Peta stays clear and says little but when Joe attempts to get a second helping, she painfully despatches him, to the delight of all." A review in the Guardian was similar; "It begins with the exquisitely awkward morning after a drunken one-stand the night before. Emerging from a sofa-bed in a musty bedsit, still in his pants and socks, cheeky cockney Joe... calls out to Petra, who is in fact called Peta." Sam Marlowe also commented on the opening scene in his review in The Times, "The toe-curling embarrassment of the play's opening scene, in which, on the morning after a boozy late-night pick-up, a queasy Peta fends off the attentions of the charismatic and amorous Joe, is painfully funny (and superbly acted by Kay Lyon and Joe Armstrong)." Mountford describes the scene in greater detail, "In a dishevelled bedsit, a young woman in a Liverpool football shirt prowls around a man lying semi-naked on the couch-bed. Joe's chirpy, charming swaggering ('That's one thing I've learnt - don't be sexist in front of the birds') becomes increasingly desperate in the face of Peta's diffident monosyllables." Toby Young wrote in the Spectator, "The opening scene, in which the lovelorn girl awakes to find the remnants of a drunken one-night stand in her bed, is easily the best. Joe Armstrong is very funny as the unwelcome house guest, though he's helped by some very sharp writing from Chloe Moss. Here he is trying to explain why he's mistakenly been using the expression 'string in my step' instead of 'spring in my step' all his life: 'They thought I was dyslexic in school... for years. Got proper treatment, the works. Turned out I was just fuckin' thick.'"

There is also a review at The Stage and you can visit the official page on the Bush Theatre's site.