Review: ABIGAIL, The Bunker Theatre

A man, fortysomething, makes an awkward pass at a twentysomething woman at the departure gate en route from England to Berlin. They meet again waiting for a taxi in the German snow and get talking and, unlikely as it seems, hit it off. We see their torrid affair unfold, the action flashing forwards and backwards over 12 months or so as playwright, Fiona Doyle, builds up a mosaic of a dysfunctional, tragedy-struck, failing relationship.

Mark Rose plays the man as one of those blokes who can't know a fact without telling you, agonises about how a relationship is going, but seldom does much about it and believes that the same kitsch lines that snared a woman in the first few minutes will work again many months later. Yes, he's believable, but oh so boring.

Tia Bannon is more interesting as the woman. She has some ill-defined issues with her now dead father, a violent streak and asserts that Hansel and Gretel should have seen off their parents as well as the witch. In a late reveal, we also learn that she has knowledge in her possession from their first meeting which puts more than a edge on her behaviour towards her lover since then.

But it's all so vague and ever so dull. We learn little about these individuals (unnamed - natch) making it hard to care about what's driving either of them to fall in and out of love. Their dialogue is free of any spark of humour and, just when a scene is becoming engaging, there's a partial blackout, portentous music and a jump forwards or backwards in time - and I (inwardly) slumped back into my chair. The actors do what they can with the script, with Bannon looking as spectacularly beautiful as her man is plain and speaking with great clarity in a difficult space for acoustics - but the drama is hung on just too flimsy a foundation to ever establish itself. Essentially, because we don't know what put this odd couple together, it's impossible to understand what's pulled them apart.

Well, sometimes plays don't quite work - or reviewers don't quite get them - it happens. What shouldn't happen is a £19.50 ticket price for a two-hander running barely 60 minutes in an unheated space. Not good enough I'm afraid.

Abigail continues at The Bunker Theatre until 4 February.

Photo Anton Belmonté for 176 Flamingo Lane

To post a comment, you must register and login.