This solo show, performed by the author in just an hour on the most basic but functional set (designed by Rūta Irbīte), is shamelessly joyful pure comedy from beginning to end—there must be several firsts for a Bruntwood Prize overall winner in that statement alone, but there are more. Strangely for the winner of the £16,000 top award in the last run in 2022 of "the largest playwriting competition in Europe", it is only appearing at the theatre that has proudly hosted that biennial event since 2005 for four midweek performances, one a matinée, as part of a tour and doesn't get a press night or even a programme.
Writer Nathan Queeley-Dennis is Nathaniel, a "serial dater" but really a nice guy who hasn't yet found the right girl. But tonight he has a date with a girl he refers to only as Beyoncé, with reference to the description on her profile on the dating app where they met. First, he needs to go to a barber, but his usual barber, with whom he has a feeling of loyalty akin to a marriage, is away for 18 weeks in the Caribbean—"that's nine trims!"—so he ends up with one who only takes appointments over Instagram and who uses a disturbing number of emoji.
His date lets him down, so after asking the advice of his WhatsApp group and the audience, he asks out Kelly from the call centre where he works. She takes full charge of their evening, which turns into a full night out including a rave (hence the "techno" in the title) and watching the sun rise over Birmingham (hence "Bullring", Birmingham's famous shopping centre). But it all ends a bit ambiguously, and, in shying away from the full romcom happy ending, is a little unsatisfying, feeling as though there is another chapter to this story that we'd like to hear.
But the script just bounces along with energy and wit, directed with a fair pace by Dermot Daly and delivered perfectly by Queeley-Dennis. While it touches on serious examinations of relationships—with women, with his barber, with his father who he says seems to resent him growing up British even though it was him who moved here—Nathaniel is such a positive, likeable character that the whole piece is consistently uplifting, with humour raising smiles and belly laughs and everything in-between from beginning to end.
After the cancellation of A Midsummer Night's Dream, this is now effectively the opening production of the Royal Exchange's autumn season, so it's a pity it doesn't get a longer run, but if you get chance to see it here or elsewhere on the tour, spending an hour with Nathaniel would brighten anyone's day and I can recommend it.