Writer: Louis Pieris
Director: Heather Kirk
A wedding is almost guaranteed to spark off some ructions in the wider friend group. Either there’s an issue with an outfit, tension between other guests, or even the length of time some others are taking to make a commitment.
A Blackpool wedding is the key moment around which this story from Louis Pieris turns. Jasper and Lucy travel up and are looking forward to seeing the lights. However, they bicker and her revelation that she hates their life together causes a rift. Flashing around episodically then, we get to see other friends in the years and months leading up to the wedding experience their own squabbles and breakups. This range of breakups and relationship chaos teach Jasper and Lucy some vital lessons, leading to a resolution that hopefully is the mature and healthy choice for them both even if it’s a difficult one to make.
As with any on-stage couple, the fighting and strife between the main pair and the other duos (all played by Hannah Brownlie and Pieris with some accent changes and different jumpers) are stylised for dramatic effect. It’s too considered, straightforward and clean to be really real. But Pieris the writer (helped along by his performance) has managed to get closer than most. These arguments are rough to watch, sometimes painfully sad and manage to include enough realistic detail to make the connection between drama and something an audience could personally recognise.
Though these interactions are engaging, sometimes fascinating, the structure of this short play lets it down. It’s all a bit high-concept with multiple shifts in time and place, the same performers switching parts back and forth, and seemingly a supernatural element (no spoilers here though). This lily is well and truly gilded – there’s a smart exploration here of how other people’s stories and histories can impact our own, how to conduct mature but upsetting communication, and how similar some relationships can be, but quite obscured by a layer of excess.
The trouble with following our characters and the need to excavate the core story gets in the way unnecessarily. Fine performances from Brownlie and Pieris go some of the way but it’s just not enough.
Reviewed on 1 August 2023
