Graham Dickson is The Narcissist

Possibly best known for being a player in the improv powerhouse Austentatious, it is not particularly surprising that Graham Dickson would borrow from another literary great for his debut show The Narcissist. The difference being that unlike Jane Austen, Russian polymath Grigoriy Alexeivich Dhukov is a work of pure fiction and leaves Dickson without a cast of improvisational comics to bounce ideas off of.

Dickson is clearly a great performer, thrusting himself into many different hats with only one coat and a chair (and later a picture of his younger self) as props, but the various vignettes begin to feel a little like a collection of auditions for a role in Horrible Histories rather than self contained sketches – something that the actor/performer makes a point of later, but this doesn’t make it any less true. None of the Dhukov stories really stick in the memory, and when they peter out Dickson has a tendency to break character, or rather break into the real narcissist character of Graham Dickson to quarrel with his director Hamish MacDougall.

The direction is smooth and Dickson plays a gallant fool brilliantly, but the constant breakdown in the story within a story within a story does more to confuse than to titillate. Again, this is something that is brought to the attention of the audience, but pointing out that something isn’t working doesn’t fix the problem – especially if it’s your only solution.

That having been said, this search for the real Graham Dickson does lead to the best ‘I don’t know how to end the show’ ending of a show you’ll see at the Fringe this year.