BWW Reviews: THE MORNING AFTER, Blue Orange Theatre Birmingham, July 27 2015

As part of the recently established Birmingham Fest (a performing arts festival celebrating the city's arts scene), Taking Chances presents the debut performance of The Morning After at the Blue Orange Theatre this week. The play is a situational comedy starring three young actors. Sam wakes up the morning after a messy night on the town, following an argument with his girlfriend. He has no recollection of what happened the night before but has two women he doesn't know in his flat! Hilarity ensues when trying to piece together the events of the night before.

Performed in the Blue Orange's black-box flexible space, the staging reflects Sam's bedroom with little set and props but illustrates the location well. A short one-act play at just over an hour is sufficient in this static setting but it is the characters that carry the material. Darren Haywood as writer and director of the piece has created a very colloquial and informal atmosphere and although the playing stakes are high initially, this peters off as the show progresses. The text is incredibly witty and Kimesha Campbell's (Echo) deadpan delivery, in particular, emphasises the intelligence of the material in many places. There are moments that feel like the humour has been pushed a little far when jokes roll into one and therefore have less impact, but a little reshaping of the script would easily solve this.

Jacob Wright as Sam strikes the appropriate balance in his characterisation. It would be so easy to overplay the role but instead, he tends to be a more of a bystander spectating the interactions between the two fiery female characters. Campbell is almost robotic with her one-liners but on the whole, her portrayal is supremely funny. Hired as an escort by Sam the previous evening, she is the only person who can shed light on what happened the previous night. Initially she seems thoroughly unlikeable but as an audience member, you warm to her as the play goes along. Gabrielle Killick plays virginal Niamh who has just been jilted at the altar by fiancé Moses. The prospect of ending up in another man's bed with no memories of how she got there is horrifying to her...although the fact she was eating kebabs when she is a vegetarian is seemingly worse. Niamh - or Steve as Echo calls her - is severely highly strung and although Killick's comic timing is great, unfortunately it becomes very exhausting very quickly. Admittedly the character is meant to be annoyingly but rather than finding nuances in the quick script, she seems to linger on them and it becomes one long comedy sketch.

Credit where credit is due, this is a show for a fresh young audience and with a nip and tuck here and there, could be an excellent piece of writing.

The Morning After runs at the Blue Orange Theatre until Wednesday 29th July 2015.