Writer: Tanya -Loretta Dee
Director: Sophie Ellerby
Tanya-Loretta Dee’s debut full-length play is almost perfect, and it looks fantastic with Mydd Pharo’s set design and Cheng Keng’s lights. Loop tells the story of a young woman, Bex, who falls in love with a man she meets in her balloon shop in Peckham. They start dating, but it’s pretty clear to Bex’s flatmate, and indeed to the audience, that the man is married. Their affair is doomed from the start.
In a clever introduction, at first the play appears to be set in Medieval times as Dee tells a story of a hunter killing a deer in the forest and then sweeping a maiden off her feet. However, this fairy story of courtly love is the result of Bex reading too many romance novels when she was younger. She still imagines herself as a sacrificial symbol for a dashing young prince of old.
Loop quickly switches to the present, and in seconds of meeting James, who’s popped in for a birthday card for his nephew, Bex is already imagining a future in which they have children. He suggests that they meet later on in the week so that Bex can teach him to make balloon snails. It’s a date of sorts.
Pharo’s set of wheat and slices of cut-up mattress evokes both magical kingdoms and grimy hotel rooms in Slough: Bex’s imaginary world and also her reality. Bex knows that she should break off the affair, but she has an obsessive personality that cannot be controlled. She has a history of stalking, which led to the police being involved.
This may all sound very dramatic and sad, but Dee layers Loop with some fine-tuned comedy and some lovely ironic expressions that ensure that the audience empathises even when it is aware of all of Bex’s bad choices. Dee is utterly convincing as the clever damsel in distress.
If only the conclusion, ending in throwaway platitudes, weren’t so tame, Dee’s play would be first-rate. But there is still much to enjoy; Sophie Ellerby directs with precision and verve while Cheng Keng’s lights are impressive for such a small stage, sometimes throwing the set into shadows, at other times, in blood red. Dee’s writing and acting ensure that she’s a future powerhouse.
Runs until 29 November 2025
