Writer: Harry Butler
Director: Anthony Biggs
Is this fringe festival a soft porn play? Well just slightly. Think Normal People meets Lena Dunham’s Girls. This cracking, spicy play might have you reaching for your inhaler. The story unfolds in the bedroom where two strangers try and figure each other out. A bit like synchronised ice skaters they skate around each other but never actually look at each other, which is weird and mesmerising at the same time.
Harry Butler is the writer and the lead in the play. The character he plays is Robert, a soft, sweet guy who is tangled up in this romantic affair with Patty, played by Rachel Feeney. But don’t be fooled by the comic timing and Chandler Bing-esque humour, because beneath this play lies painful truths and emotional turmoil that might have you in tears over your ex.
The staging is literally a blank canvas in which light transitions the characters from one moment to the next. The twists and turns in the script demand the attention of the audience. Played with warm humour and unflinchingly honest dialogue that will have some members of the audience laughing nervously. Remember that famous restaurant scene from when Harry Met Sally? Well, multiply that scene by ten and that’s somewhere along the lines of the discomfort waiting in store.
The rating for this play is a high 4. Changing the Sheets is brilliant; a mere point deduction for the use of clichés and the female character being a little bit stereotyped, but apart from that, grab your friends or other half and head for Bewley’s theatre. Just maybe don’t take your Gran!
Runs until 9th April 2022
4*
Brilliant
