Writer: Jess Kambitsis
Director: Lucinda Freeburn
We’re backstage, inside the dressing room of a theatre, complete with costume rail and dressing tables cluttered with congratulation cards and make-up. Four young female actors engage in some post-show commentary, compliment each other’s work, and share observations on the audience reaction. Their play has a six-week run in the West End, a marker of their individual success, and acknowledgement of their hard work. This gaggle of thespians are buzzing to be there, loving what they do and soaking up the communal atmosphere of sisterhood.
This is the life of a ‘professional pretender’ and Pretend, the title of this sharp, snappy, satisfying play of 45 minutes, explores not only vocational performativity but also life as performance, the masks we wear, the roles we play, the scripted lines formed in our conscious minds. An impressive debut by writer Jess Kambitsis – who also plays the role of Emma – Pretend lands a series of carefully aimed narrative punches at the unsuspecting audience, beguiled by the banter and softened by the repartee of this group of female friends.
All the characters: Cat and Molly (who are in a relationship), Sophie (who’s just split with her boyfriend of five years), and Emma, who is adopted, are fully rounded, each with a backstory and their own baggage. “We’ve all got shit” notes Cat, whose parents haven’t spoken to her since she came out. Occasional spats and cross words fly out, revealing what characters might really feel about each other. Is Molly only here because her dad’s a famous producer? Has Cat only been cast because of her black skin? Is Sophie pregnant? Will Emma be rejected and abandoned, again?
Dynamically directed and choreographed by Lucinda Freeburn, the characters are in constant movement, in and out of doors, taking up the entire stage. Sound designer, Bella Bond, creates some great rhymnic audio transitions that mark out time through the six weeks of the play’s production, and Pretend is a sterling ensemble effort from the entire cast. Bought to you by the talented, newly formed Dawn Train Theatre, Kambitsis originally hatched the idea for Pretend during lockdown, unsure it would ever see the light of day. Thank God it did, and hopefully there will be much more to come from this female lead, ‘binary-traversing’ band of creatives.
Runs until 17 May 2025
