Writer: Sally Nash
Director: Meeri Aro
The title may suggest that this show will be a comedy of sorts. Far from it. There are a few jokes, mainly about vegan pancakes, but Sally Nash’s story is about a relationship that is going wrong. And then very wrong.
Nash plays the female character, never named, who, on her birthday, comes home to her boyfriend. She’s been at karaoke with her lesbian best friend. He’s been hosting a pub quiz night. She likes singing Shania Twain songs; he’s gearing up to create a round of questions on Eurovision for his loyal customers. He’s put Cats, the Musical round to bed. With her devotion to her best friend and his ‘soft’ masculinity, could the couple be suited to differently gendered partners?
But they kiss and cuddle on the sofa while watching sport on the TV. At first, the noise from the commentary of the Olympics and then the football is a distraction for the audience, but then we realise that the lovers, fiancés we discover later, are in competition with each other despite their friendly demeanours.
Something has happened in the past to make them a little distant with each other, and this event is drip-fed to the audience a little too late, meaning that the middle of the show sags as Christmas and New Year pass by. He wants her to stay in. She wants to go out. Nothing happens for a long time, and all the drama happens in the last 10 minutes.
However, the acting by Nash and Dominic Bryant is first-class. She’s moody and unreceptive, while he’s too needy and passive-aggressive. There is something rotten in this relationship, but the clues could come earlier in order that the play begins with the tension it ends with.
Modern-day gaslighting is not a new subject for theatre, but Nash’s play is still a slow-burning psychological thriller.
Runs until 31 July 2025
Camden Fringe runs until 24 August 2025
