When I arrived my heart broke a little to see the little white slip on my chair. I know a whole lot of heart and soul goes into these productions, and to see that Ellen Publicover had had to withdraw from the show made me sad.
However, I still held high hopes for the now abridged two-hander, and I’m so glad to report that it lived up to them. If there had not been a slip on my chair I would not have known that half of the cast had only been in the show for one week.
The play follows Sid and Rose as they both try and not try to discover what housemate/boyfriend Leo has been up to, beginning innocently enough you wonder if it’s just going to be another ‘men are such dicks’ play, which it is not by any means, a refreshingly strong female lead that is unafraid to play dirty to get what she wants the plot spirals into a interesting, if a little unbelievable, place but utterly convinces you that the characters are in imminent danger, with no apparent easy way out until the very end. Although the writing fell into the ‘new writing’ style trap of unnecessarily cutting off dialogue in order to appear snappy very occasionally, it on the whole was engaging and realistic. The acting too was, on the whole engaging, (not helped by a noisy stage) and believable and the costuming was brilliant and really accurately reflected the characters being portrayed without shoving it in your face.
This play is brilliant for the rollercoaster it takes you on, I can only imagine what the full production was like, but I recommend this show, and company, highly on their professionalism and delivery. –
Kimberley Turford
