Content warning – Kissed By A Flame explores themes of terminal illness, grief and loss within. 

Inspired by events from writer Simon Perrott’s life, Kissed by a flame (directed by James Callàs Ball) sees a bereaved man struggling to cope with his partner’s death 11 years after he passed. As an anniversary looms, Jamie is finally ready to open an old diary and relive the final months of Teddy’s life. 

As soon as Kissed By A Flame started, it launched into a dialogue marathon at a pace that could give the Gilmore Girls a run for their money. With just over an hour of stage time, the play felt quite rushed as it jumped from scene to scene, leaving little to no time to emotionally invest in its characters. 

Kissed By A Flame jumped back and forth in time as Jamie (debuting Ian Leer) read Teddy’s (Andrew Lancel, Coronation Street) diary. The characters were together 11 years before Teddy’s death 11 years ago. At the point of opening, Jamie had grieved Teddy for as long as they were together.

Actors Lancel and Leer worked well together, with a chemistry that when given a moment or two was quite apparent to the audience. Leer managed to convey an a consuming heartache as Lancel tenderly looked over his shoulder to guide him through it. Unfortunately though, these blink and you’d miss it moments between the two men came and went rather than adding some much needed weight to a more deserving plot. 

There was the occasional slip up with missed music timings and if we aren’t mistaken there may have been a hastily abandoned accent in the opening lines of the play. In the midst of it all came the occasional one liner that fell a bit flat and given the subject matter, was the wrong kind of distracting. The only other character mentioned in passing was Teddy’s mother, whose unseen disapproval felt more like a prop for a gay stereotype. Cue the polite chuckles. 

The set for Kissed By A Flame was minimal to the point of clinical, which didn’t distract from the story, in contrast to the chaos of Teddy’s terminal illness and the fallout from it. Jamie’s memories, merged into Teddy’s diary entries, brought on a soft gold lighting across the stage, which placed the characters in the past. The golden hue was cleverly used to contrast the blue lighting of the present; Jamie views the past with rose tinted glasses whilst the cold blue of the present symbolises the stark loneliness of the past 11 years.

Kissed By A Flame had great potential given its autobiographical nature from writer Simon Perrott. Ultimately though its message of reflection and self healing was left behind as it hurtled from start to finish.

Kissed By A Flame is showing at The Pleasance Theatre, Islington for a short run until 11th February.