Writers and Directors: Elliot Windsor and Alexandra Andrei
A man (Elliot Windsor) and a woman (Alexandra Andrei) enter the stage from two separate doors, look up into a bright light and then begin to prepare a meal, chopping away at ingredients as their voices echo out over the speakers in a constant stream of free word association. Finally, after a minute or two, the man and woman sit down at a dinner table and play out a scene.
This pattern, repeated about five or six times over the course of an hour, is the show in a nutshell, and this vignette structure showcases some strengths but mostly weaknesses of the show’s two writers/performers. In terms of the latter, Andrei’s delivery can often be halting and unsure, while Windsor shows good range but could at times come on much stronger than the sombre atmosphere the various scenes call for.
Both these weaknesses are born out by the writing of each interaction at the dinner table, where in brief exchanges Andrei and Windsor play everything from kings and witches to noir detectives and despondent wives – all leaning hard on melodrama, with instant high stakes, typically to a fault.
Thanks to the fact that the vignettes are abstract and brief they often combine with this melodrama to trend closer to what feels like parody or pastiche – the one exception being a notably affecting scene of domestic violence, during which both Windsor and Andrei demonstrate remarkable physicality. In a similar vein, the show feels strongest when the focus of its episodes is on the mundane rather than the fantastical, where things feel less in service to any over-arching meaning the show seems to aim for.
That same meaning remains both obvious and elusive throughout the show’s runtime. Obviously in so far as the intention of each individual scene is clear, but elusive in concluding what actually unites them all. Focusing on the strongest scenes, and developing those so they can ground their heavy subject matter and lose the melodrama would greatly benefit what feels like a scattershot first draft.
Runs until 15 March 2025
