Chris Duke, or perhaps an alter ego of a man also called Chris Duke, has built a man cave. Although your guess is as good as mine as how he did so, given that he admits he doesn’t know what most of the pieces in his toolbox are even for. The more salient point, however, is that he’s followed the general guidelines out there for what should be in a ‘man cave’, complete with a list of ‘man cave rules’, which include “What happens here, stays here” and “Pizza is a food group”.
In an exploration of his identity, Duke quickly realises that he has fears and insecurities, and plenty of them. Voicing them goes against the stereotype of Macho Macho Man – and there’s a running joke about not even having the muscular power to prise open a pickle jar. The songs in this brief musical, which does well to stick to the point about masculine identity in the modern world, are often catchy, and carry a straightforward and yet profound message, especially one about wanting to be himself – by which he means not necessarily knowing the answer to everything, or even acting as though he does, with scope to make mistakes and learn from them rather than being The Perfect Guy.
The storytelling is strong in this show, with musical numbers that propel the narrative forward. Some concerns, which may or may not be rational, about his daughter turning against him and making steps towards living the kind of life that pretty much cuts off all contact from him in perpetuity, are quite harrowing. There are no easy answers, and unusually for a musical, no neat, gloriously happy ending with narrative strands tied up. There’s no hip, hip hooray, tickety-boo! But that is precisely the point – life is messy, grubby and unplanned, and it’s about time men dropped the façade that everything’s ‘fine’ all the time, because it simply isn’t normal for absolutely everything to always be okay. A thoughtful and perceptive production.
Review by Chris Omaweng
Set entirely within a single room, the show follows one man over the course of an evening after missing a phone call that he cannot bring himself to return. Through a series of songs, conversations, memories, and imagined phone calls, the piece explores masculinity, emotional suppression, fatherhood, identity, and the pressure many men feel to constantly appear “fine”, even when they are struggling underneath.
Written and performed by Chris Duke
1 MISSED CALL
theSpace @ Surgeons’ Hall at the Edinburgh Fringe
24 to 29 August 2026
