It’s a rare treat to care so much about characters in a play. Watching Beginning in its transfer to Ambassadors Theatre was just such treat and it’s as much about the two utterly engaging performances as it is David Eldridge’s tender writing.Read Phil Willmott's original review HERE.
A drunk couple, left awkwardly together at the end of her housewarming party, get to know each other in the wee small hours amidst the messy aftermath of her smart Crouch End flat. We feel for them both as the hopeless romantics circle each other for nearly two hours (not the 100 minutes stated, but I really didn’t mind). Both long for intimacy but are devastatingly bad at getting it, being not only such different people but also, each having so much baggage getting in the way.
It’s this touchingly painful dance of words that stirs the bellyaching laughter of recognition from the audience as we yearn for their lonely hearts to unite. When the brilliant Sam Troughton, endearing as luckless Danny, begins wiggling his hips and actually breaks a few moves to impress a very willing Laura, it’s impossible not to fall for him. Justine Mitchell is completely believable as the prickly yet enchanting Laura - a strong, independent Managing Director who knows what she wants, yet is willing to overlook all of Danny’s flaws as she attempts to play the courtship ritual in person, sick and tired of the internet dating game.
Everything about the production, from the choice of music to the ingenious real-time playing of their encounter, is raw with human frailty and so utterly engaging in ordinariness. Every time you think Danny is going to score he messes it up. Just as Laura seems to have won him over she says the wrong thing. They’re real people that we want so much to find each other, but this is the worrying part: modern romance is tougher than ever to navigate and it doesn’t get easier as singles get older. Laura is 38 and Danny 42 – by no means on the shelf but not idealistic about the future either. By opening up to each other over the course of the play, we see how connections are made in the moment and the unlikely meeting of lost souls is a poignant reminder of how difficult it is to find the one.
Polly Findlay’s direction must be good as it’s completely unnoticeable, but clearly her process bringsout the best in the superb actors as they inhabit Fly Davis’s stunningly authentic set. I found myself wanting to meet Danny’s sassy old nan, live in Laura’s flat, but most of all, to get drunk with and dance to Bros’ I Owe You Nothing with her at the next party so that I could get to know them both. Everything about this delicate production is right and in its new space, the tiny 444-seater Ambassadors Theatre, is a reminder of how the briefest glimpse at a moment in ordinary people’s lives. Told by a craftsman like Eldridge, it can be the only ingredient needed to making a wonderful evening of theatre.
In a B-movie style fantasy, Anne Washburn’s The Twilight Zone is futuristic retro fun. Twisted somewhere between sci-fi and spoof, this darkly stylish fantasy pays loving tribute to American pop culture.