GOOD GRIEF
Cert 12 ★★ On digital from Monday
originaltheatreonline.com Tomorrow-april 15
THIS two-hander follows Adam and Cat, old friends dealing with the recent loss of Liv, his partner and her best mate.
Nikesh Patel and Fleabag’s Sian Clifford rehearsed via Zoom then filmed a simply staged production together.
Lorien Haynes’ script unpicks the regrets, recriminations and guilt spiralling out from messy memories and unbearable loss.
Black humour leavens the comfort found in mutual misery before an underlying attraction spills into desperate passion and a repeatedly broken promise of “we must never do that again”.
Despite the weighty topic, it feels a little slight but its final seven words are devastating.
WILLY Wonka meets Saw in a tame teen flick which traps five high-school stereotypes in a network of escape rooms controlled by a mad computer.
Shy coder Max (Sydne Mikelle), school jock Connor (Tanner Buchanan), shallow Instagram star Sophie (Jade Chynoweth), bully Aiden (Emery Kelly) and gaming addict Benny (Jason Genao) win a competition to stay at the mansion of tech billionaire Atticus Virtue (Chad Michael Murray).
But when they get there they find he’s already gone out. Instead, they have to deal with Haven (voiced by Marina Sirtis), a sentient computer program that seems to have modelled itself on 2001’s Hal.
Haven sets them a series of challenges which mix mild peril with low-budget special effects.
It’s engaging enough but instantly forgettable.