I often avoid writing about shows which involve people I know, for obvious reasons. But this one at the Landor theatre (over the pub of the same name, two minutes walk from Clapham North underground station) has such terrific performances that it would be a shame to ignore it. Eddie Coleman's two short plays are on for just a week and prove just how good the acting can be in London's fringe theatres, even when the audiences are small and the production is done on a very tight budget. Come as U R starts with a simple premise: two married couples meet to swap partners in an attempt to perk up their fading sex lives. But it's clear before a word is spoken that at least one of the couples is at odds over the planned evening of suburban swinging. Every time the randy husband Bill brings in a tray of drinks or a bowl of nibbles, or a video camera, his wife Mel immediately moves it. When the second couple Geoff and Tracy arrive and it's clear that both of them have doubts about the evening, there is some exquisitely played social comedy of embarrassment. Director Amber Homes and her cast (Caroline Langston, Lynn O'Sullivan, Tim Gambrell and Pete Picton) play it straight and concentrate on the timing, and the dialogue crackles away. It's reminiscent of Alan Ayckbourn at his best, or of Mike Leigh's Abigail's Party. The structural flaw in the play is that it's soon apparent that the night of sexual abandon which Bill has planned won't happen because he has the other three lined up against him. Tracy discovers that her insurance salesman husband isn't quite the nerd she thought he was, but the crucial scene when they dance the tango together perhaps requires a really hot-footed male dancer to make it work.
The first play of the evening is Houston, we have a problem. I found this three-hander about a man bringing his new American bride to meet his dotty mother rather less effective as a piece of writing, though Victoria Johnston is excellent as the bride.
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