Review: IF WE ENDED THIS, Camden People's Theatre

There's a level of narcissism that pervades every relationship we build. If we take a deeper look at how our bonds operate, we'll notice that intimacy and the boundaries we set for ourselves are what control them.

From a very young age, these lines are crossed and respected, continuously shaping how we approach others. Entwine Theatre explore the inner workings of human connections in If We Ended This, an uncompromising examination of growing up, growing closer, and ultimately growing apart.

While Chloë Lawrence-Taylor's writing is svelte and natural, it feels like there are at least two plays hiding inside her script. She divides the piece into chapters that become metaphors for the themes she tackles, but these vignettes pile up and stretch the original 75 minutes to closer to an hour and a half.

Abbie Harrison and Abby McCann are exceptional actors. They tread the stage lightly and make the craft seem incredibly easy. As directed by Cesca Echlin and Henry Eaton-Mercer, they orbit each other like planets, creating gravitational patterns according to their characters' synchronicity. The length of the show combined with the number of different scenarios that study the same themes prevents it from going straight to the jugular and being as jolting as it could be.

The interludes that divide the episodes act as a fil rouge that speaks for the innate need to defend oneself from potential sources of pain - defining a relationship in this case. Face-masks - our new best friends in the time of Corona - are shields that protect us from the outside realm.

They can become armours that assure comfort when we don't want the world to perceive us as our full selves, but they're also barriers that create unnecessary distance. It all comes to the person's own definition of boundaries and what they want to achieve with their proximity.

Harrison and McCann imagine what they look like underneath their face coverings, but they keep going back and forth between their yearning to see and be seen and their desperate necessity to safeguard their inner selves for one reason or another.

All things considered, besides a bit of a trimming job, the company is on the right path with If We Ended This. It shows the nasty sides of opening up and allowing others in, as well as the purest forms of friendships and intimacy.

It's vulnerable, loving, melancholic, and even funny at the perfect times. Some shaving off here and there, and it could turn into an unquestionably gut-wrenching and eye-opening piece of theatre.

If We Ended This runs at Camden People's Theatre as part of Camden Fringe until 8 August.

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