Foursome

This is a dead cert. How can you go wrong with fifty minutes of great acting? I could wax lyrical about the performances, certainly David Beck, Hayley Doyle, Christopher Grahamson and Sian Polhill – Thomas deserve it, but there is no excuse not to go and see it for yourself. The company have got the venue, time, price and duration perfectly – such a rare feat that immediately warms an audience member to the show before the lights even go down.The story is four friends Paul, Anna, Sam and Amy. Paul and Sam are flatmates. Paul meets Amy when she enrols at his college and they begin to date while Sam meets Anna at a party and they begin to date. The four meet and it is discovered by the boys that the girls are sisters. The play consists of a highlights reel of memories immediately before the death of Sam and Amy in a tragic accident. This is cleverly crossed with the real time story of Paul and Anna immediately following the deaths. The idea is great and the dialogue both touching and very, very funny. My one observation would be writer Stuart Price has taken a very specific period of time that encompasses a huge amount of very serious emotions. Add a non-linear time structure to this and the writer has an opportunity to employ the convention of the reveal – as Peggy Ramsay once said “great theatre should be lots of big surprises, separated by lots of little surprises.” From time to time, Price’s structure missed the opportunity to reveal and therefore surprise his audience. Some moments – especially the sequence regarding Amy’s big news left the entire audience on the brink of tears – but the final punch was never delivered because they already knew the nature of the news from an onstage moment minutes earlier.The design of the piece – stage, lights and sound are simple, effective and clearly well thought out. The piece is also a solid showcase of Stuart Price’s directorial work - if one were to be picky, a suggestion could be made that in such a vacuous space sometimes it could be more visually interesting if the actors had been encouraged to opt for the energy shown during the time switches more often during dialogue. At certain moments the very powerful, but absolutely motionless deliveries allowed my focus to drop. Overall, an enjoyable fifty minutes and one I would happily part with the ticket price for. Hopefully, following a sell-out finish to the fringe, this company will continue to develop and grow the piece and you never know – they may have a hit on their hands.