With the worry of a possible relationship bust-up hanging in the background Ned Riley takes his seat and looks to his tribal leader for the evening, Mark Little, to see if his inner caveman can help him through the travails of gender relations - and writing a review with your spouse...

As any man settles down in his seat at the start of Mark Little’s Defending the Caveman, he should be forgiven for feeling a twinge of surprise, nervousness and paranoia.

Read part one of Defending the Caveman, a female view, here...

Here is a show which is advertised as a must for anyone who wants to understand the opposite sex, but the opening music is a hip-hop orientated refrain of ‘all men are arseholes’ played over the projected image of a grizzled and overweight Little sniffing his own underwear.

Uncomfortable viewing indeed, and SSP noted quite a few smug grins on the faces of one half of the many couples who made up the audience at the Leicester Square Theatre.

The slight sense of unease among the male half of the audience was hardly helped by Little’s opening, which was light on comedy and laughs, and heavy on self-deprecating observation.

However, do not be fooled. The following eighty minutes are a hilarious and surprisingly perceptive monologue on the gender divide, which is rendered on a Grand Canyonesque scale. One early highlight was Little’s portrayal of men as tough negotiators when it comes to deciding who should re-fill a bowl of twiglets – ‘I’m not doing it, I bought the beer”, “I carried the beer”, “I drank the beer’.

This is fine in male only company, where it forms some kind of friendship ritual, but when surrounded by women - who Little describes as taking a “co-ordinated” approach to such matters – it can make any man look like, yes, you guessed it, an arsehole.

This light-hearted approach successfully brings both sexes in the audience together in knowing laughter. Clearly all this arsehole stuff is just one big misunderstanding.

Perhaps even more surprising is that an American script, adapted by an Australian, can cut so close to the British bone.

Other than a few moments, such as references to fishing and barbecues that are more Aussie male than Brit, Little adeptly connects with his audience. Male behaviour and attitudes to friendship, housework and never winning arguments are all insightfully touched upon.

If all this seems a little middle of the road, Defending the Caveman includes a range of dream sequences which darken the atmosphere. At times, this is wonderfully undermined by Little’s on-stage set-directions, while at others it is given genuine depth.

The final image, of a bare-chested Little, still overweight but brandishing a spear in the place of his undies, almost feels magnificent.

Oh, it’s good to be a man. Even if it does make you an arsehole.

Ned Riley

Mark Little's Defending the Caveman is currently running at the Leicester Square Theatre until April 5th.

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