A modern romance exposing our biases brings an unravelling romance to Angel.
Opening its run at the Old Red Lion last night, Spent spun a cleverly written break-up into a visually engaging piece of art. The production follows two characters, A and B, played by writer Nikoletta Soumelidis and Charlie Collinson, delivering an honest, organic performance of lovers falling out of love.
What makes this story special is that the production swaps its actors into opposing roles each night. A, inexperienced in relationships, is pulled into B’s controlling grasp, only for the audience to have completely opposing reactions according to what actor is in each role.
As A discovers her housemate’s passion for sadomasochism, they embark on a dominant submissive modern romance described in the play as “an exchange of power, part of every relationship”. The initially innocuous sexual play morphs into a delirious imbalance of power that holds its audience out of their bodies and suspended in tension for most of the night.
The pair’s lighter moments are interrupted by fragmented scenes of their breakup, a foreshadowing emphasised by the dramatic change of lighting. The simple costume choices and bare set prevent distraction from the raw exchange of emotions to unfold within it.
“You wouldn’t accept this for a second if the roles were reversed”, proclaims A as her relationship unfolds. The performance I attended had the male actor as B, the more manipulative character, and the roles will reverse the next day. When the female actor is A, the play’s director Helen Cunningham says: “people are so much less forgiving”.
I was left aghast by my own internal biases, as the controlling behaviour of B solicited my pity, while if it had been a woman in his shoes, I would have been parsimonious in offering sympathy. The subtle construction of the characters’ insecurities got under my skin, and the chemistry between actors is striking from the start.
“The end goal was to highlight that we all see in stereotypes, when different people say the same thing, it hits differently,” says Cunningham. “Directorially, I keep the staging incredibly similar, with exactly the same script. But it’s quite ridiculous how much it changes.”
She gave the example of a climactic moment when violence is closest to erupt between the characters. When it is a man threatening violence, there is alarm. If a woman would have been in his position, she’d be nothing short of laughable. “What can a woman really do?” she says.
The idea came out of a need for more accurate depictions of the power play at the centre of most relationships, Soumelidis says. “I had just had a breakup,” she says about the writing process. “On screen or on stage, the man’s always shown as an asshole, the woman’s always a wet cloth. But there’s so much in between, and that’s what we tried to capture.
“The same things ring completely differently depending on who says them.”
The play runs without an interval, and it’s no accident: “We completely vetoed darkness, [the audience] never get a breath, there’s no reprieve”, says Cunningham. The increasing tension in the modern rendering of a tragic love story invites the audience to engage their empathy until curtain call. By the end, I was hanging onto their every word.
The two-week run at the Old Red Lion follows a four-day sold out run at Barons Court Theatre last November, met by stellar reviews. 28&2 Productions’ latest work is hosted by one of the oldest pubs in London. The Angel staple is over 600 years old, and is credited to be the site of writing of Thomas Paine’s Rights of Man.
What makes this play Funique is that the concept still has room to grow. Spent’s next run will feature four actors sharing the two roles, with two same sex versions as alternatives to the current male-female dynamic. For anyone in search of an inventive portrayal of heartbreak and narcissism, love and betrayal, look no further than Nikoletta Soumelidis’s brilliant work. Catch it until 29 of March, tickets £16-18.
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Highbury patch reporter, photographer, polyglot, student journalist specialising in political and social movement reporting.