Review: BUCKET LIST, New Wimbledon Studio

Bucket List is the first play from Show Don’t Tell Productions, a company dedicated to new writing, recently founded by postgraduate creative writing students at Oxford University.

Played for one night only at the New Wimbledon Theatre Studio, as part of its #FromTheFringe season in June 2024, this show is now looking forward to a two-week run at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

The story follows Luke and Jess from when they meet at a party, through moments in their relationship to their break-up. Luke then returns to Jess to tell her that he’s dead; they must then navigate a new way to be together, or apart.

It's a cute premise with lots of potential that currently feels unfinished. The story jumps back and forth between points in the relationship to after Luke has died without developing either aspect sufficiently. With a two-hander, we need more memorable moments and more agency from both characters for it to feel fully rounded. Quiet moments can have great impact, but they need to have greater emotion behind them to resonate fully.

We get the impression that the pair break up on the same evening that Luke dies, and yet it is up to Luke to return to tell Jess of his demise. Surely she would have been one of the first people to know? Luke also appears surprised to learn that Jess speaks French, even though her mother is, actually, French. There also needs to be more emotional heft in the story; the pair's break-up feels fairly robotic and Jess appears to feel no grief at Luke's death. She even says she made herself cry at his funeral. 

Marianne Nossair and Theo Joly perform fluently, but lack chemistry and so it's difficult to become invested in their story. There is a distinct lack of physical contact; understandable perhaps once Luke is a ghost, but proving awkward while the couple are alive and together. 

Imogen Usherwood and Harry Ledgerwood's direction would benefit from bringing more movement to the production, as it is currently fairly static. Ashling A.Sugrue's sound design works well, combining snippets of adverts, songs and film dialogue to punctuate scene changes.

There are some very intriguing ideas here; the feeling of running out of time to achieve what you want, how much unfinished business there will be when you die and what different things mean fulfilment to different people. More focus is needed to really explore them further.

One of the wonderful things about the Fringe is not only discovering new talent, but it gives participants a huge opportunity to develop and refine their ideas. Show Don’t Tell Productions should take this chance and run with it.

Bucket List is at TheSpace @ Surgeons’ Hall, Theatre 3, 12-17 August, 10:00am / 19-24 August, 11:05am

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