Guest Blog: Matthew Gould On THE GULF at Tristan Bates Theatre

Two women in a boat talking about their relationship - what's not to like? Sex, manipulation, jealousies, compassion, companionship and boredom: they are all in there, and they're all relatable too. Betty and Kendra just happen to be women.

When I'm working on a two-hander, the directional approach differs to working with a larger cast. With two actors, you can explore and try different ideas and tangents. With a larger cast, you can still encourage those elements, but you have less time to really look at different ideas to include or discard.

With plays like The Gulf, the intimacy that comes from working with two actors and discovering things about a play - and ultimately each other - can be inspiring and terrifying. It can feel like there are six people in the working relationship: two actors, two characters and two directors, all needing to be heard, nurtured and supported.

Luckily for us, the intimacy of the play is echoed and enhanced by the Tristan Bates Theatre - a small space usually played end on. But the current artistic team is encouraging companies to try different things, and when we decided to do The Gulf in the round, the idea was enthusiastically welcomed by the theatre.

In the round itself can be an intimate experience for all involved. In certain therapeutic circles during training, the practice of 'the goldfish bowl' is used, having a 'client' sit on a seat and the trainee therapists sit in a circle round the room listening to the session. This creates the idea of eavesdropping on a moment in time, which is what the audience are doing as they watch The Gulf.

Then there is the text. The strength of Audrey Cefaly's script is that it shows you the ordinariness of Betty and Kendra's life, and their struggles as a couple and as individuals - Betty wanting change, Kendra not. "I'm not the answer, Baby, I'm not. I'm just me."

I believe the audience will see a lot of their own relationships in the conversation, and that whatever the gender is of two people in a relationship, the difficulties and life choices we all make are very similar to those of Betty and Kendra.

However, seeing two women in a play with no one else on stage is still rare. It's not a combination that's very common in theatre. There is a balance to be addressed, and that comes from writers writing about women, producers producing the writing and people wanting to hear the writing. It's not about bravery or feminism - it's about giving it a platform and doing it.

The Gulf is a play that finds humour in the everyday, humour in the suffering, and sadness in the ordinary.

The Gulf at Tristan Bates Theatre 17 April-5 May

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