Love sparks laughs aplenty
MEET Tom. He’s the new guy at work, trying to make a good impression but with the knack of saying the wrong thing.
So starts this sharply observed comedy that has the audience laughing from the off at familiar situations that clearly strike a chord.
And many of the office-based shenanigans we witness are toe-curlingly embarrassing. Which makes them all the funnier.
This new Live Theatre production re-sets DC Jackson’s 2008 play – which apparently has been staged the world over – in contemporary Newcastle.
Directed by Max Roberts, founder member of the Quayside theatre, it is designed by Alison Ashton, whose simple workplace set doubles as a flat where the “romance” at the heart of the story plays out after office hours with added layers of complexity.
It all starts out on the first day at work for new starter Tom, played as a typical bloke by Brian Lonsdale who makes him likeable enough that we overlook his more oafish qualities.
As he stumbles over his words, trying to make a good impression with his new colleagues, he says the direct opposite of what he really means.
And he continues in this vein after he ends up having what he thinks will be just a onenight-stand with fellow worker Amy, played by Bryony Corrigan.
But as he tries to backtrack from what he fears may develop into a dreaded relationship, the play cleverly back-tracks too, to show us the same scenes from Amy’s point of view.
And guess what? Things don’t play out in quite the way that Tom saw them. Or rather, Amy reads them differently. Amy is revealed to be rather less smitten than we first thought as we learn, through flashback scenes, about their former relationships, lost loves and past hurts that haven’t really healed.
Lonsdale and Corrigan deliver equally well-tuned performances and milk the comedy-drama for all its worth.
Add to the mix another seasoned actor, Amy McAllister, who swaps sexes and accents to play all the other characters in the story – including quirky office worker Sasha, Tom’s mate and Amy’s mum – and the result is laugh-out-loud funny with a touch of rudeness and a lot of bad language.
This new version of the play, which creator Jackson – writer of Channel 4’s Cold Feet and Loaded – allowed Live to update and translate to the North East, feels very real in all those awkward conversations, social faux pas, office politics and the messy nature of the central relationship, which is nothing like a thunderbolt love story but might hold the promise of a slow burner.
It might be well-trodden ground but it’s fresh, funny and frank.
The play, which is an hour and 40 minutes straight through without an interval, runs until May 12.
It includes a post-show talk on April 21 and a chance to meet the cast on April 26. See www.live.org.uk.
BARBARA HODGSON MAKES A DATE WITH MY ROMANTIC HISTORY AT LIVE THEATRE IN NEWCASTLE