Review: SPY FOR SPY, Riverside Studios

Spy For Spy is a play with a difference: The audience is in control of how its scenes play out, picking song titles with red heart balloons forty minutes before the performance starts.

Telling the often complicated love story between lawyer Sarah and aspiring actor Molly, it shuffles between six scenes of their often messy relationship. With moments including an awkward first meeting, a temporary break up and moving in together, there’s a possible 270 options of how the story could play out.

Kieron Barry’s ambitious concept wouldn’t be so strong if it didn’t have an engaging story to go with it. Funny, heartfelt, and surprisingly gut-punching, his witty and raw script explores the idea of love having no specific sequence.

While its six scenes can feel self-contained, Lucy Jane Anderson’s direction makes each one distinct and never boring. With one moment capturing the inherent awkwardness of a new romance, and another standout the tenderness and quiet heartbreak towards the love story’s conclusion, she elevates Barry’s dialogue with a wide range of often contradictory emotions, making his in-jokes and references all the more significant. Concluding each scene is Holly Ellis’ bright purple lighting, illuminating Bethia Jane Green’s intimate set featuring pastel walls and colourful furniture.

With no two performances being the same, Amy Lennox (Cabaret) and Olive Gray (Halo) prove they are up to the challenge as the uptight Sarah and free-spirited Molly respectively. While having chalk and cheese personalities and falling into often volatile behaviours, their fiery chemistry instantly makes you believe in their love. Their character types could have been seen as two-dimensional in other hands, but both treat them with nuance and depth. Lennox is able to make us empathise with the possibly unlikeable Sarah as she switches between emotions at the drop of a hat, while Gray’s youthful energy and comedic timing is a standout, making a monologue involving shooting a hamster darkly hilarious.

Spy For Spy is more than “a queer love story.” It’s a love story. Kieron Barry has created a non-linear script that captures the messiness, joy, newness and tragedies of love with a universality anyone can relate to. Undoubtedly a must-watch to see leads Amy Lennox and Olive Gray, they bring humanity and rawness to the main romance that makes them ultimately worth rooting for.

A shuffled playlist worth replaying 270 times, all I can say is the audience who correctly places its six scenes in their chronological order deserves an award.

Spy For Spy runs at Riverside Studios until July 2.

Photo Credit: Ben Ealovega

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