Review: TEAM VIKING, HOME Manchester
Photo credit: Toby Williams
How would you plan your funeral? It’s a morbid topic, but James Rowland waves away the gloom into easy humour and deft emotion in his wholehearted one-man show, Team Viking. The answer, of course, is in a Viking manner. The question was never really asked by Rowland, but when, at 25 years old one of his best friends Tom is diagnosed with terminal cancer and months to live, it feels like a request he cannot deny.
Rowland begins with some self-proclaimed preamble, immediately inviting the audience into his confidence and space, you sort of feel like after 70 minutes at HOME Manchester together, you will become friends. And then, without too much preamble, the show starts and he launches into his father’s funeral where the narrative begins.
The beauty of Rowland’s Team Viking is the openness in his performance, the charming and delicate way he deals with emotion and life and how he pieces you back together with such quick wit, you’re not sure if you’re ready to laugh yet. You’re still at a funeral - but as Rowland says, it’s important to remember that you’re alive and what a privilege that is. Based on the true story of his friend Tom’s passing from cancer of the heart, Rowland is masterful onstage as he mixes comedy, storytelling, and brief musical interludes into a captivating tale of love, life, and loss.
The set remains minimal; Rowland spends the show in funeral attire with Viking horns and Lynx Africa sitting behind him, allowing his words to take centre stage. Team Viking begins when Rowland was a child, friends with Sarah and Tom and inspired by an old Viking film into playing Viking games in the back garden. With touching nostalgia, Rowland moves from childhood to university hedonism to London city life effortlessly, telling of how the three remained inseparable since their youth. Tom’s cancer diagnosis unites them in their mid-twenties and his childhood dream of being a Viking had never really faded.
In part devastating and others laugh-out-loud funny, Rowland creates the perfect blend of life’s highs and lows and all the good-natured chaos that comes with it. Dark humour fizzes throughout and his playful, friendly style is utterly captivating. A gem of a show, Team Viking is not to be missed as it tours the UK ten years after its acclaimed Edinburgh Festival Fringe debut.
**** Four stars
Reviewed by: Hannah Goldswain