Search

Saved articles

You have not yet added any article to your bookmarks!

Browse articles

GDPR Compliance

We use cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website. By continuing to use our site, you accept our use of cookies, Privacy Policy, and Terms of Service.

Waiting for Curry

 
Simon Lovat Review by Simon Lovat 2 Published: 19 May 2018 Sweet Dukebox Show Dates: 14 May 2018-20 May 2018

The opening premise of Twilight Theatre’s Waiting for Curry, written and directed by Susanne Crosby, runs thus: Rob and his wife Chris have invited their friends Phil and Sue over to their house for a take-away curry, but it fails to arrive. So, what happens when two couples with history are kept waiting for their food and have access to large quantities of wine? Apparently, an exploration of who is, or has been, in love with whom.

An ultra-light domestic drama that leaves us as hungry as the curry-less characters

Staged simply, with four seats around a small table, the play tells the story of the uncomfortable dynamic between the two couples. Rob and Chris’s relationship is misfiring, and Phil and Sue are together for very different reasons, it seems. Some of the dialogue takes the form of party chit-chat, but periodically, exposition and character development is effected by a soliloquy from one the characters, while the remaining actors freeze in position. This is perhaps the most successful aspect of the play. Sue (Alex Louise) gets the best of these soliloquys, with a nice passage about how love feels. However, the actors, all recent graduates of Brighton’s Academy of Creative Training, are much less comfortable once the emotional temperature of the piece is raised. Here, we have a domestic drama after the style of Alan Ayckbourn, but with less interesting characters, fewer jokes and little of the poignancy. At times, the script veers in the direction of cliché: 'Money doesn't buy you happiness, but it does allow you to be miserable in comfort,' Rob tells us unironically as the story moves towards a predictable ‘ending’. However, the actual ending of the piece works as a kind of punchline which seems confusingly to undo what has gone before, a device which is both unsatisfactory, and illogical. I cannot say more, without revealing a spoiler.

Waiting For Curry might have been an opportunity to mine all sorts of secrets and issues – Rob is a self-made right-winger, and Phil is a lefty social care worker – but these things are left on the sidelines as soon as they are mentioned, in favour of an ultra-light domestic drama that leaves us as hungry as the curry-less characters.

Related to this article:

Location:

Performances

The Blurb:

Ever wanted to tell someone how you really feel? Four friends, two couples, and a lot of history. Too much wine flows as they wait for their takeaway, and they share more than intended... including a past that two of them knew nothing about... An evening where everything comes out of the woodwork: secrets, longings and jealousies. An evening that changes them and their friendships forever. "An excellent play and cast needing wider circulation" 'Highly Recommended' (Fringe Review) "Brilliant – funny and clever", "More people need to see this!" (Audience feedback)