Aberdeen by Cassie Workman. Soho Theatre, 21 Dean Street, London W1D to 16 December 2023.

4****: William Russell.

“A spellbinding homage to Kurt Cobain.”

Kurt Cobain. lead vocalist, guitarist and singer of the rock band Nirvanna, is one of legendary figures in popular music. Born in the town of Aberdeen, a remote logging town in Wahington state in 1957 he had a troubled childhood but he did have talent and in 1989 formed the heavy metal band with a couple of friends. It was successful – but his private life was tempestuous, he had a stormy marriage to the singer Courtney Love and the pressures of success led him to an ever increasing use of heroin. He was also obsessed with guns and in 1994 he commited suicide, shooting himself in his Seattle home, his body not being found for three days. Workman has created a verse monologue about his life which, one or two slightly tricky rhymes apart, she delivers with great sensitivity, holding her audience’s attention throughout. It is – even if Cobain is not necessarily someone one cares about – a moving tale of a man destroyed by drugs, by the way success demanded things he could not cope with, by his upbringing. She has created a kind of love letter in which she tries to bring him to life, to seek an explanation for what he did, to justify just why to so many he remains one of rock music’s icons. The result is a spellbinding sixty minutes performed in the round – Workman has nowhere to hide and knows how to handle the audience surrounding her. She has only some background effects to punctuate the delivery of the poem she has created to help and the occasional blackout to show the passage of time.

Devised by Cassie Workman