Lorna Irvine reviews London a play by Simon Stephen.
The initial premise of Simon Stephens' play is interesting: the audience is given a set of headphones each, told to put them on and remove them at the sound of a tone, which denotes the end of the first half.
As the title suggests, running away to, and escaping, London is what connects each story.
The first setting is a hotel room where a lone woman (Abby Ford) sleeps. She awakes and paces the room. Her monologue, that of a young mother wracked with anxiety about her actions, unfolds in a stream of consciousness. Ford mimes certain points on stage, unravelling while singing snatches of songs from her youth, anything from Nick Cave to Chaka Khan.
Many companies have tried this before, the inner voice evocative of a confession to a close friend, and her voice is lovely, yet the performance seems somehow disconnected and a little overwrought.
The second half fares much the same- this time Alex (Cary Crankson) a young father, addresses the audience like a matey stand-up, holding forth on photography, detective novels and the fact he cries more easily since his daughter's difficult birth. Some of the dialogue is cringe-worthy and lacking in focus, although Crankson's performance is okay.
Cliched and a bit too comfortable, neither character's story is particularly affecting, with few stand-out lines; the device of making the female character troubled and vulnerable while the man is earthy and likeable is banal- she may lift off the ground and fly away, but he is too grounded, too prosaic by half.
Paines Plough Theatre Company have a good concept here- the exploration of intimacy in a big space- sadly, it is a wasted opportunity, as bland and forgettable as a wet weekend. The city of London should not be this dull.
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