Writer: Lauren Lewis
Directors: Sam Daffyd-Williams and Rachel McKay
Since Ivor Novello knocked on the door of a London house in 1927, his heavily kohled eyes peering above the high-wrapped scarf, the idea of a stranger coming to stay has been a captivating proposition that has inspired dramatists from Harold Pinter to Robert Holman. Now, writer Lauren Lewis adds a soapier contemporary spin with a 60-minute comedy as cultures collide and a host family come to blows over the arrival of their paying guest.
As mum Kate fussily prepares the house for a new arrival, her husband David and adult daughters Lily and Megan couldn’t be less interested in the new lodger, until he turns up. Expecting a woman, the arrival of Italian man Andrea immediately sets David on edge, worrying about his daughters’ safety, and he is right to worry when Andrea gets close to them both.
The Lodger, playing at the Lion and Unicorn Theatre, has a lot of ideas in the mix and it takes a while for Lewis’ story to decide which of these is the key driver. The relationship between Andrea and the two daughters is pursued in separate trajectories that gives the audience far more knowledge than the characters have at any point in the play, while other strands create a sense of this working-class family trying to meet the cost-of-living by taking in a houseguest, an embedded blame culture focused on immigration and inter-generational differences about the expectation to accept what life gives you.
These concepts are not yet fully developed or entirely woven into the creation of character, and instead, Lewis’ play leans into the soap opera possibilities of dissatisfied sisters, a seemingly liberal young man and the opportunity to pursue multiple romantic relationships that create chaos. This never quite reaches the necessary level of farce but does offer a suitably dramatic showdown in which some of the wider concerns about the family’s economic situation and dad David’s political stance can be aired.
The Lodger needs a stronger focus on character, rather than allowing the necessities of plot to determine how individuals might behave. Each person in the family needs greater distinction and time to establish their personality. David, for example, could have more scenes with his children after Andrea arrives to better explain the open hostility he displays as well as exploring the cultural differences that drive him into a petty Englishman mindset. Kate hardly exists beyond some initial people pleasing while Andrea himself is all charm and faux interest in Lily and Megan but is currently a theatrical device rather than a rounded person with his own agenda and agency.
With performers including Alfie Jameson, Jacopo Mascitelli, Lauren Lewis and Niamh Deasy, The Lodger, directed by Sam Daffyd-Williams and Rachel McKay, is presented as lots of short scenes, almost like a sitcom. In its next iteration, that would be a solid basis to develop it into a farce whereas Lewis would need longer, more interrogative scenes for this to become a character or issues-based drama instead. Returning to the Lion and Unicorn following its run at the Camden Fringe in August, The Lodger has some fun moments but needs to decide what else it wants to be.
Runs until 21 October 2023
