Review: Ben Target: LORENZO

Many Fringe shows attempt to grapple with existential themes like care, love and grief. Few manage to explore all three in depth simultaneously while making their audiences laugh, cry and even dance along the way. Ben Target’s LORENZO is one of the few. 

LORENZO is Target’s story of caring for his dying Uncle Lorenzo, as well as a tribute to the eponymous man himself. Across a life-affirming 65 minutes, Target paints a vivid picture of Lorenzo, the act of care in both its profound and mundane guises, and the unconditional bond shared between the pair. This is a one-man show with a pared down set centred largely around a carpenter’s table, but within it is all the colour and messiness of life itself.

Target is a captivating performer, the audience entranced throughout. He cut his teeth in stand-up and it shows; perfectly pitched humour underpins the story throughout but is finely balanced with moments of emotion in which you could hear a pin drop. The result is deeply human – haven’t we all found moments of levity amid the darkness or despaired at the mundane even as our lives change around us? 

By the end of the show, the audience feels as if they knew and cared for Lorenzo too, his loss and those of others felt throughout the room. On one level, this is a pitch perfect tribute to one man. On another, it is a joyous celebration of what it means to love deeply and a moving exploration of the price we gladly pay for doing so.