19.39°C Promise, written by Olly Medlicott, played at the Headgate Theatre in Colchester, reviewed by Paul T. Davies.
The dinner party has long been a staple of comedy and tragedy, most notably the Macbeths’ disastrous shindig, and Beverley inflicts an evening of embarrassment and humiliation on her guests while Abigail is having her party. In Olly Medlicott’s new comedy, a group of friends gather around the dinner table in scenes covering twenty years.
In an interesting structure, we begin in 2015, go back to 2005, and end when the friends graduate from university in 1995. From privileged backgrounds, they debate sexual politics, argue constantly, and it’s difficult to see why they became such good friends and remain so. Penny is the absent friend in 2015, having died, and her partner Jez announces at the end of the scene that “I killed her!” However, with such a strong gambit, the play, ironically, given its title, fails to deliver the promise of that statement.
There are some dark hints in 1995 that an encounter with a prostitute in Prague may have transmitted a disease to Penny, but it’s vague, and she wears a headscarf in Act Two, a universal indicator of cancer.
The cast do a fine job with such an underpowered script. Kieran Stephenson transmits good nervous energy as Jez, and Sam Pilkington does well portraying gay, gentle Pete, the peacemaker. Sofia Ferreira is good as feminist Saskia, although the part is mainly strident and one-dimensional. Letty Overbury-Tapper convinces as Lucy, and George Penny is so strong as misogynistic prig Rupert, that it’s a wonder the friends bother with him, let alone marry him, in the case of Lucy. Shania-Grace Thompson rounds out the cast as Penny, and the arguments and discussions reminded me a little of the 90s house-share series This Life.
The play lacks serious jeopardy, the stakes never raised high enough, and the food is never consumed convincingly, the cast seeming reluctant to get stuck in, despite numerous protestations of hunger. (If you have six friends and only three bowls, it’s clear not everyone will get dessert.)
There are some excellent lines delivered with superb comic timing, and you sense the company wanting to break out and take it further. Sexual experimentation at university could have explored the gender politics even further, but the play needs defining incidents that make the group friends and then tear them apart.
It’s good to see new writing on the Headgate stage, however, and there is much potential to be developed.
Promise runs until 2nd May. Tickets are available.
