Keelan Kember and Kedar Williams-Stirling in Thanks For Having Me at Riverside Studios. Credit Oliver Kember.Honey (Kedar Williams-Stirling, most recently seen in Bush Theatre’s excellent Red Pitch) is a cool and laidback guy who likes to play the field. During his first date seduction of Maya (Adeyinka Akinrinade), his neurotic best friend Cashel (Keelan Kember who has also scripted the piece) calls to announce the break-up of his eight year relationship. Maya is concerned at Cashel’s apparent devastation and suggests he come over rather than be alone. When he appears and launches into a self-absorbed pity fest, she distracts him by setting him up on a double date with her friend Eloise (Nell Tiger Free). Thereafter the two couples bed-hop and explore what it means to keep things casual, whilst benefitting from regular (but not too regular) booty calls.
The four characters’ constant discussions and evaluation of their feelings, provides ample opportunity to tap the seemingly limitless tropes and clichés around love, dating, relationships and sex. Some lines border on clunky and insensitive (particularly one about gay men shagging during the AIDS crisis), but in the main, they are harmless nods to the plethora of approaches to sustaining an active sex life whilst avoiding the spectre of a suffocating commitment.
There’s a strong element of knowing and dead pan Uni wisecracking of the style prevalent at the Oxford Review (no surprise given Kember’s attendance). It is both glib and fatuous and specifically spotlights Cashel’s twitchy spectrum-induced, rapid-fire delivery. Initially this offers considerable entertainment value, but stylistically there is also an element of overkill by the end and many of the repetitive one-sided phone conversations suffer from predictability. That observation aside, there is much to like about this ostensibly playful piece of fluff directed by Monica Cox. The dialogue takes an occasional stab at more profound proselytising around the benefits of deeply felt coupling and companionship, but in the main, it plays to its farcelike strengths and manages to deliver a wholly entertaining 85minute (without interval) skit, about vulnerability and the perpetual human need to connect.
Eleanour Wintour’s modern ground floor urban apartment set, delivers the required lounge/kitchen split, together with a couple of bedroom doors to facilitate the farcical elements. Meanwhile, her modern clothing choices neatly encapsulate the style and personality of each character.
THANKS FOR HAVING ME plays at Riverside Studios, Hammersmith until 26th April.
