DramaLondonReview

The Misandrist – Arcola Theatre, London

Reviewer: Maryam Philpott

Writers: Lisa Carroll

Director: Bethany Pitts

Turning a casual fling into a relationship proves tricky for Rachel and Nick in Lisa Carroll’s new sex-based rom-com, The Misandrist, exploring the power play involved in transitioning between a complex dating past and an evolving connection with someone satisfyingly new. Carroll’s show, playing at the Arcola Theatre, probes the difference between being sexually open and experimental without needing to know the last name of a partner, with the more difficult emotional opening-up to another that Rachel and Nick seem reluctant to try. Revelling in its exuberance and the celebration of sexuality, The Misandrist is less confident when it comes to character construction.

Nick and Rachel meet in a bar during a work event and despite a faltering start end up having sex. So, they do it again, and again, and before long they are trying out as many types of sex as possible. When Rachel suggests pegging, a nervous Nick starts to identify his limits and as the couple works through their desires, they become increasingly attached to one another. But just when it seems that they might get everything they want, the rug is pulled from under them.

Carroll’s writing is funny and frank, and The Misandrist is a high energy piece in the first Act that belies its 2-hour and 30-minute running time – a long play for what is essentially a two-hander. And there is plenty of comic value from the couple’s surprising encounters and the confidence and enthusiasm with which they pursue their desires. Stylistically, Carroll mixes dramatic scenes with a narrated montage as the pair describe the events as months pass in a barrage of sexual encounters, dates and happiness . All given a breakneck pace by director Bethany Pitts who balances the punchy nature of the quickfire segments with the more tentative building of connection as Nick and Rachel slowly explore their boundaries.

Where The Misandrist struggles is in character depth and affecting emotional connection which, in spite of a darker second Act, really only skims the surface of potentially abusive behaviour on both sides, Rachel’s emerging trauma and backstory and the consequences of the couple’s complex power games in and out of the bedroom. Carroll gives Rachel a pivotal speech lasting several minutes listing all the things she hates about male dominance and it rightly earns a round of applause, but it feels like the author’s voice and not Rachel’s because the audience barely knows who she is.

Performed by Elf Lyons and Nicholas Armfield, Nick and Rachel are in some ways a perfectly ordinary everyman couple navigating their way through their 20s with short-term jobs and disastrous choices. Lyons’ Rachel enjoys the authority that their sexual game brings and across the play it corrupts her, although we discover too little about her past to properly place this desire for subservience from her partner into context. Armfield’s Nick is the more emotional and does develop during the story becoming more certain of what he needs, although aside from a flatmate we also learn too little about his life as well and why they matter together.

The Misandrist needs to more evenly balance its two quite different acts to find those deeper resonances for Carroll to situate Rachel’s major speech more clearly within the action of the play and make her (and their) experience feel universal. There are a few trigger warnings but there’s a great energy to a show that offers plenty of saucy humour and just enough engagement with the characters to carry it through.

Runs until 15 May 2023

The Reviews Hub Score

Funny and frank

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The Reviews Hub - London

The Reviews Hub London is under the editorship of Richard Maguire. The Reviews Hub was set up in 2007. Our mission is to provide the most in-depth, nationwide arts coverage online.

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