Edinburgh 2024 Review: CONVERSATIONS WE NEVER HAD, AS PEOPLE WE'LL NEVER BE, Assembly Rooms

Combining a tender romance with a sci-fi twist, Conversations We Never Had, offers a new take on the girl-meets-girl rom-com, throwing its characters into an unthinkable scenario.

After an awkward meeting in line for the loo at a house party, Gina and Frankie fall in love. Six years later, following a tumultuous breakup, Gina finds a way to erase their relationship entirely. With one little pill from the internet, she explains to her ex, it’ll be as though they never met. As the pair are left with only half an hour to make their decision, the play flickers back and forth through moments of their relationship, from giggling highs to moments of heartbreak. 

Often when writers perform their own work, it becomes clear that they’re much better at one skill than the other. This is not remotely the case for Lucy Harris, who penned the piece and also plays Gina. Her performance oozes strength and swagger, striding around the stage while also showing a believable vulnerability. Siobhán Cassidy bounces off Harris well, engaging and fun-to-watch throughout. 

Harris’ script demonstrates a keen eye for realism: the long-term relationship we get to know is painted in vivid colours, with in-jokes and recurring points of conflict. Especially effective are the shifts from present to past, filling in the background of the picture in detail and helping us to understand both characters in depth. It’s also consistently funny, with relatable, down-to-earth humour. Conversations also manages to feature some perceptive lines about sapphic identity, without ever becoming a play about being gay. 

While the sci-fi frame separates Conversations from the typical rom-com set-up, it does often feel somewhat forced. The moments that directly reference the pill are some of the weakest in the show, while the more naturalistic scenes are more successful. It also leaves the play with something of a lack of structure: within the half-hour countdown, the conversation tends to loop around in circles rather than progressing and building in tension. 

India Dillon’s direction helps with this, however, with dynamic movement and clever use of a door as the central set piece. The instances of physical touch are especially well-staged, delicately casual and used sparingly. 

The play’s ending is both one of its best and most frustrating moments: touching use of projected video helps to flesh out the world beyond the show, but we are left without either a final gut punch or full resolution.

Detailed and intelligent, Conversations We Never Had, As People We’ll Never Be showcases fantastic character work in both acting and writing, and is well worth your time. 

Conversations We Never Had, As People We'll Never Be runs at Assembly Rooms (Front Room) until 25 August

Image Credit: Ella Gant

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