Writer: F.L.J. Burge
Director: Irina Anghel
A showcase for innovative new writing by the same author, the Hen & Chickens Theatre hosts Vers, two one-act plays by F.L.J. Burge exploring relationships, connections and the comedic value of everyday life. With one play set in the 1950s and the second in the present day, Burge is particularly adept at creating the passive-aggressive escalation of minor niggles into full-scale arguments or dramatic denouement between characters who can love and frustrate one another in equal measure.
The first play, The Dinner Scene, takes place in an Italian restaurant during a date between an established couple who see one another regularly but are not yet living together, finding that complicated spot between knowing someone too well yet not being candid enough to speak openly. Following in the footsteps of writers like Alan Ayckbourn, Harold Pinter and Noël Coward who all used restaurants as a setting, the formality of eating out merged with the intimacy of personal conversations exploding in public proves fruitful ground for Burge when vegan James and easy-going partner Tom find their menus choices expose fault lines in the partnership.
A 40-minute play, The Dinner Scene is a well-structured piece that recognises the limits of the scenario, not trying to do too much with a comedy waitress or ordering too many courses. Instead, the conversation covers their mutual irritations which unfold well with James being militant about dietary choices souring the atmosphere while their lifestyles and opposite approaches create the tension that Burge leaves nicely unresolved. The final segment is overly repetitive as argument is reduced to a singular note, but the creation and management of personal tension in a restrictive setting is well controlled.
The second play, Poofs with Guns, is stylistically very different, employing comedic mime that nods to Commedia dell’arte in a rare stage heist story set in the 1950s in which the men largely speak in Polari. The heightened staging choices are particularly interesting, opening with an enjoyable movement sequence that summarises the crime for the audience which is full of period accents including some slapstick humour and a jazzy soundtrack. It is a device employed several times across this slightly longer 50-minute story, that builds on cinema techniques to dramatise the experience of the crime at the same time as the ‘plan’ is being described that creates an energetic and dynamic effect.
The premise is shaped by a later story involving a young traveller being told about the crime years later in Buenos Aires by an old reveller, staged as a monologue in which she is remembering events at another period in her life. This layering of time is a particular feature in both eras, reversing back days or years within the narrative. It could lose 10 minutes but as with the earlier play, Burge is an evocative writer of place, creating those different eras as well as the impressions of London and Argentina through the writing in an otherwise simply staged production.
Entertainingly performed by Chloe Taplin, Daniel Keogh and Graham Halley who have a great time in both presentations, these enjoyable plays show considerable promise and a disciplined control of the one-act drama.
Runs until 12 April 2025
