Writer: Kate-Lynn Du Plessis
Director: Monica Cox
The balloons that hang in a net awaiting to be released suggest this play by Kate-Lynne Du Plessis will end in a party, with the audience invited to join the actors on stage. After all, Kelvin Ade’s character is a famous musician jet-setting between London and New York. It comes as a surprise when the balloons – not party ones at all, it’s clear to see when they tumble to the floor – are freed halfway through the 60-minute run time.
Ade’s Xander has just begun dating author Keira (Du Plessis). On their first date, he ends up at her flat. They fumble about in their lovemaking; he knocks over a glass of red wine onto her manuscript, her almost completed first novel. He asks her if he should leave, but she wants him to stay. He stays and appears never to go home.
However, one day out of the blue, his mother turns up at Keira’s front door, demanding that he come with her to New York, where the studio is booked for him to record his next album. Xander’s mother believes that Keira is a distraction and is just a starstruck fan hoping that her own brand will be promoted in the shadow of Xander’s.
In New York, Xander writes brilliant songs, all inspired by Keira. Absence makes the heart grow stronger. But at the same time, Keira struggles to write the final chapter of her book about her father. These ideas on writer’s block and inspirational muses should be the main focus of the play, but the narrative changes tack when a video of the couple goes viral, threatening to jeopardise both their careers.
The video causes confusion for the audience as well as for the two protagonists, as it is never really explained. Has it been deep-faked and by whom? There is no conversation between the couple about who could have created such a video and what they were attempting to achieve. It’s a whodunnit which is never solved. The rest of the play, concerned with damage limitation, isn’t as interesting as the concept of artistic inspiration.
The acting by Du Plessis and Ade is strong, but Madeleine Hutchins plays Xander’s mother, Olivia, like a two-bit Miranda Priestly from The Devil Wears Prada, jarring against the naturalistic acting of the other two performers. The play looks good, however, with Grace Rumsey’s stylish set. Perhaps there is too much arranging of props, but director Monica Cox ensures that these set-changes are imaginatively fashioned.
Cox also manages to create tension within the play, but by the end, we care too little about the characters to really get behind them
Runs until 23 August 2025
Camden Fringe runs until 24 August 2025
