The best way to understand the changing nature of a city is by questioning the young. For several decades, one of the biggest groups to be affected by the regeneration and gentrification of a city has been young people. Squatting became illegal, club and rave culture started to become commercialised, and a growing influx of transplants has pushed a city like London to its limits. This inevitably starts to change the culture and community of a place, with increased rents and few job opportunities. Adding to this is the cost-of-living crisis, which is perhaps felt more in London. It creates an untenable situation that can leave you desperate. Or, in Harry’s case, force you to try to swim under the current.

 

Harry, Max Hyner, is in his twenties, a South Londoner, and thought it was a good idea to get a NEXT store card. What sounded like a good plan started to snowball, and the debt grew; as did payment demands. One day his friend, Sira, Fanta Barrie, tells him she got £300 from a guy she met on a website. With the demands for payment increasing further, Harry asks Sira for the name of the website. With some reluctance, and a lot of trepidation, Harry creates a profile, logs on, and meets Daddy, Jon Campling.

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The pace is slow at first, but Hyner never shows his hand. There’s an insightful nod to Philip Ridley in Hyner’s text, and in how he allows his story to unfold whilst also holding back and leaving questions unanswered. The chemistry between Barrie, Hyner, and Campling is electric. The palpable energy they’ve forged, guided by their director Sean Landis, means you follow their every word and every action. In Sira, Barrie balances out her rough confidence with a subtle vulnerability. She’s direct and needs to talk to Harry, but she knows she can’t get through to him. This means he doesn’t see her pain because he’s so wrapped up in his own drama. Campling keeps you guessing about Daddy’s intentions. He’s somewhat untrusting but never feels as though he’s being overly exploitative. There is clearly a power imbalance, but by exploring their initial connection and showing how Harry ignores the many warnings from Sira, Hyner allows his audience to gain a deeper understanding of Harry and the spiral he’s on.

 

The relationship between Harry and Daddy is transactional, but ‘nothing comes of nothing’. Maybe it’s more metaphorical; maybe for Harry, Daddy does become a father figure in some roundabout way. Of all the scenes between Daddy and Harry, it’s the visit to the opera that is the most heartbreaking. The subtlety of this moment: you feel Harry’s like a fish out of water, Daddy’s arm slowly reaching over but not fully touching. Hyner shows, for this brief moment, that Harry seems happy.

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There is a lot of meaning in the way Hyner writes that it’s only now, whilst I have the opportunity to sit down and write, that I get a moment to think. It seemed odd that a young man would have chosen to get a NEXT store card; it’s not the hippest place. But what NEXT means to Harry is perhaps connected to his family, to the memories of going shopping with his parents. Much like his use of Cockney rhyming slang, NEXT is Harry’s attempt to hold onto his memories and his identity. The humour in the text, especially the way the messaging is realised and the banter between all three characters, creates a nice balance and wonderfully highlights the lyrical beauty within Hyner's writing. 

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The journey Hyner takes his audience on isn’t linear, and it plays with the themes of memory, fears, and the need for emotional connection. The confidence we see in Harry at the start is innocent and naive, and Hyner takes his time pulling you into Harry’s world. This is his first trick that lulls his audience into a false sense of security. Harry, with his short blonde hair and semi-cocky London swagger, is lovable, but by the time we meet him, he’s beyond being helped. He holds pain from a past relationship that hasn’t subsided, and likely won’t, leaving him more vulnerable and in need of connection.