Does Cameron Crowe’s 1989 romantic comedy Say Anything have much traction in 2026? Does its hero, American rebel kickboxer Lloyd Dobler, the teenager played by John Cusack, who doesn’t want to buy or sell or process anything in his life, mean anything in the one-click-purchase consumerist world we currently live in? Or is he just a meme of a guy holding a boombox on social media long divorced from his source material?
It’s possible that, in the UK at least, the answers are no, no and probably.
Which means that writer and actor Dennis Trainor Jr may not be benefiting particularly from the recognition factor in this one-man show which imagines Dobler in 2026 leading a meditation at an expensive spiritual retreat. There’s even a danger it’s putting people who don’t know the film off.
Which would be a shame as this is a punchy piece of political theatre which doesn’t require any knowledge of the original material (though if you have, it adds a piquant flavour).
The Tao of Lloyd brings Dobler’s story up to date but also takes the political elements of the character and pushes them to the heart of the story.
In the years since we met him in the film, Dobler has marched with Occupy, messed around in a band who were contemporaries of The Strokes (but not as good) and then got a job which meant he had a close-up view of 9/11. Oh, and he’s been studying the Tao Te Ching which frames the central dilemma he faces.
It’s a timely one. In the current Trumpian hellscape that is America when you find yourself face to face with the tech bros who are distorting human existence the question is do you take action or not? And, if so, what kind of action in an age when a sharply worded Tweet on X isn’t really going to cut it?
This is a heart-on-its-sleeve piece that is in despair at the state of the world. Its left-leaning politics are very obvious, but it’s not just a booster piece for miserable liberals. It offers a more complex vision of the present moment than that, helped by Trainor’s impressive, well-judged performance which toggles between fury and hopelessness.
The result is a clever, angry piece of theatre that asks uncomfortable questions: what is our purpose in this world? What do we do in the present moment? What happens if we do nothing? And what is it we can do anyway?
That’s a lot to squeeze into an hour and there are moments – as Dobler sums up the last 40 years – that at times seem a little glib. But this is not a glib work. It’s fresh, funny and ultimately rewarding. It’s certainly a Fringe show that deserves an audience bigger than the one I saw it with on a Sunday afternoon.
The Tao of Lloyd, 12.25, Drawing Room at Assembly Rooms, August 6 – 30
