Jules (Will Merrick), a marine biologist with an unlucky family history, places a personals ad offering "sex to change the course of the world". He's about to be joined at his underground lab by Jo (Nicole Sawyerr), whose expectations of a wild night of no strings sex, are understandably running high. Little does she realise the potential evolutionary significance this meeting could have for the species. Such is the premise of BOOM - the manic three hander (with assorted fish) currently being presented at Theatre503's 63-seat studio which adjoins the Latchmere Pub on Battersea Park Road.
According to the blurb, playwright Peter Sinn Nachtrieb double-majored in theatre and biology; evidently in a wish to combine the two, he penned this bizarre, existential mash-up for a limited Off-Broadway run back in 2008. Perhaps to his surprise, (certainly to mine!) over the next two years it became one of the most produced plays across the US.
It takes a quirky and almost undisciplined imagination to explore the complex and potentially sprawling subject of evolution, whilst at the same time (presumably for the sake of scale and budgets) confining the action to one room. Add into the mix a weirdly unsettling woman in the corner (Mandi Symonds - whose expansive optimism is periodically let loose on percussion instruments), plus references gleaned from Richard Dawkins and the occasional Monty Python nod and there you have it... something... I'm not entirely sure what, but definitely something.
Katherine Nesbitt has directed most effectively when the cast members have stillness and awkwardness to convey in the light and amusing early sections of the evening. In such a small venue, more work is required to rein-in the worst excesses (including volume) which can detract from the overall effect.
It's not groundbreaking stuff, but at these prices you get an energised evening away from the TV, you'll be supporting one of our more adventurous fringe venues and most importantly of all, you'll never be able to look at a goldfish bowl in quite the same way again.
Runs until 26th August
Among the personal possessions I've accumulated during many years of theatregoing, is a programme signed for me by Stockard Channing at the stage door of the Comedy Theatre in 1991. Back then, she was garnering plaudits for her turn as empathically naïve Ouisa Kittredge in Six Degrees of Separation. I am delighted to report that in Apologia, which has just opened at Trafalgar Studios, Channing (now aged 73), delivers an equally noteworthy performance which is set to dazzle West End audiences.