Writer: Amy Lee Lavoie
Director: Harry Burton
The action of C’mon Angie!, by Canadian writer Amy Lee Lavoie, has been relocated from Vancouver to Belfast. This works well, especially with two fierce performances by Rafaela Elliston and Robbie Martin as Angie and Reed. The play itself is short and intense. It’s the morning after a one-night stand. Reed is contentedly showering, calling through to Angie about what soap to use (‘something neutral smelling’). He appears in a towel, unaware of what we can see – Angie has been sitting up in bed stony-faced. When Reed suggests a second date, she becomes incandescent with rage.
It’s a promising set-up, and with Lavoie’s sparky dialogue, the strong acting and Harry Burton’s pacy direction, C’mon Angie certainly maintains tension and suspense.
Angie feel furious because, unknown to Reed, she feels she has been violated. What precisely this means is gradually teased out between them. Reed is horrified. At first, he can’t think what she means: he is sure the sex had been consensual. They know each other, after all. Indeed Reed’s wife is Angie’s boss – so Angie knows from the start that he is married. They’d met by chance at a bar, drunk a lot and, it seems, Angie had initiated things by kissing Reed. Unsurprisingly they end up at Angie’s flat for the night.
How you feel about what emerges may well depend on your age. Twenty-somethings leaving the theatre talked animatedly about identifying with Angie. Audience members who’ve been around the block a bit, may find an hour of Angie’s unyielding fury borders on the hysterical. Reed’s faults are gradually uncovered. He’s decent in a blokeish way – not a sexual predator, but happy to accept sexual advances when they come his way. But privileged by gender, he’s blind to the nuances of Angie’s feelings. He’s clear, however, that she never signalled at any point that something wasn’t right. Our sympathy for him wanes as he becomes increasingly self-regarding (‘I’m a father!’), concerned only about possible consequences.
While the dialogue is sharp, the overall tone can become wearying as Angie is constantly brittle while Reed pusillanimously tries different conciliatory tactics, all of which fail. You long for resolution. C’mon, Angie! certainly makes clear the nightmares of sexual etiquette in the wake of #MeToo.
Runs until 17 June 2023
