The Better Half just wants to say it how it is. Each performer wears a tee-shirt designating their role in the narrative: The Woman, The Man, The Sister, The Ex-Flatmate, The Colleague, etc. Most of the cast sits on the front row of seats as the audience as walks in, chatting quietly to each other and holding cardboard boxes illustrating the show’s tagline: ‘moving in, moving out and moving on?’
On stage, The Woman and The Man are moving out of a flat and spend the show contemplating the two years they have spent there. Through a combination of text, dance and 80’s-pop style love songs their life together and the story of their relationships unfolds.
Set in a simple black box studio populated only by performers and boxes, it’s up to the cast to carry the piece. Certainly, some members of the company are better than others, delivering more convincing, realistic, and watchable performances. But overall the largely student cast delivered the show with passion.
I did find some of the dancing a bit formulaic and the choreography was not always delivered with total confidence. Some of the text felt a little obvious. I think the piece could benefit from more silence to allow the audience to feel complicit in the unfolding of the story. There were, however, endearing, hilarious, and even cheesy (in a good way) moments and the performers inspired a gentle warmth inside the studio which on their first night, indeed on any night, is no mean feat. Trying to be their own better half, this company provides an enjoyable evening’s entertainment at the Fringe.