AD | tickets gifted in exchange of an honest review.
TW: Emotional abuse, swearing, discussion of sexual content & mental illness
Spent, the last play of 28&2productions strongly questions power dynamics within a romantic relationship. The play is so universal and from one show night to another, roles are swapped. You have A, an ambitious executive, part of the corporate world, coming from an upper class family, always trying to do things right and not to feel much. Then you have B, the creative that is trying to make it into this world, full of fire. Charlie was A that night and Nikoletta B. Gender neutral name chosen on purpose. Nikoletta Soumelidis did great work with writing the play and acting in it, it is always lovely to see the combination of actors giving life to their own work.
“I wrote it because I talked to a lot of people and they have been in the same situations that I have. It can only become so extreme and toxic. Then you have this urge to fix it, and then the more you try to break it and the more you lose yourself. I did not want it to be black and white though, when picturing toxic relationships, it has to be balanced”.- Nikoletta Soumelidis
The storyline is chronologically mixed, the encounter of A and B is being depicted at the beginning of their relationship, the end, the close end, the struggle, the strong try of making it work again, and making the trust come back. Each time the audience jumps into time with the actors, the lights go down and you always have a distinctive line to indicate the shift. It is an intense story that anyone can relate to, identifying this power dynamic. The fact that the roles flip makes the question of gender interesting, and the power can shift regardless of it. In this show we perceive co-dependency, control and abuse from the point of view of being a human that is in love and has a relationship within the society.
The alchemy of Nikoletta Soumelidis and Charlie Collinson on this intimate stage of the Barons Court Theatre was shining. They were rooted within the truth they were delivering, through the dialogues and movements. Flirt, sensuality, distance, sex, fun, fear, anger, love… All of the elements of a romantic relationship were being exposed on stage. On the 16th, Nikoletta was playing B and Charlie A. The director, Helen Cunningham did great work with keeping exactly the same scenes, blocking, and attitude of the characters no matter who was A and B. B is at the beginning more playful, then crashes into fears, is shocked by the secrets of A, tormented by their proper existence within the relationship and can not imagine their life without A. A is more closed off, the choices that are made to be in contrast with B are very subtle as a form of intensity is still being felt. But with A, everything is within, apart from the end…
“If you watch the show the other way around it is the exact same thing, I did not want to give an excuse to the audience to walk away having viewed it differently.”- Helen Cunningham - Director.
Sound and light helped to build up that intensity, to make these moments exist and land on stage. Sophie Sparkes did a great job with the contrasts with her composition. The theme of the show was purple and pink but you could see the small shifts as the audience discovered more of the characters' layers and about the relationship at a deep level, this supported also by the music, composed by Sophie Sparkes. The music was very much connected to the heartbeat and breaths of A and B, made it really loud, making the audience enter into the character's thoughts and emotions.
Overall, Spent is a great show mirroring the reality of characters within a romantic relationship. Through its excellent writing it conveys laughter, tears and passion throughout.
★★★★★
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