Review: THE CRUMPLE ZONE, Waterloo East Theatre

The love-triangle trope is not one that is exactly new - The Twilight Saga, Bridget Jones’ Diary, The Vampire Diaries, most seasons of Friends - it comes with a pedigree or an over-familiarity. Take your pick.

Buddy Thomas’ play, ‘The Crumple Zone’, is no exception to that. Set in an apartment on Staten Island, the play introduces us to housemates Terry, Alex and Sam (Alex’s girlfriend of four and a half years who also lives with the boys). We also meet Terry’s ‘perfect’ best friend, and the apparent love of his life, Buck.

The play itself was just short of the two-hour mark, but one does feel that it would run better in a 75 minutes or so version like that of the 2018 King’s Head Theatre production, generating pace and creating more of a sense of drive and humour. 

In a nutshell, the play’s entire plot is essentially set out within the first few minutes of the first scene: Terry is ‘in love with’ Buck, who has been sleeping with Alex behind Sam’s back, while she’s been on tour for the last year almost. And that is basically it. However, the play seems to centre more around the extravagant character of James Grimm’s Terry. 

A seemingly love-lost man who is in a turmoil over the fact he has never been in a relationship, Terry’s career is failing (both in his acting and mundane resting jobs), and he has to keep the biggest secret from his best friend Sam - all while indicating no intention to actually tell her that the love of her life is cheating on her. 

Grimm’s performance of over-the-top dramatics proved the highlight of the evening. The heightened personality of Terry created a lot of the gags, but also some beautiful moments of depth towards the end. His was the standout performance.

Sinead Donnelly, in the role of Sam is also worthy of praise. Initially called ‘Matt’ in the original 2000 off-Broadway production, the character was developed in later revisions to the play over the last couple of decades. The creation of Sam as a female character adds several layers to the dynamic of the cheating from Jonny Davidson’s Alex. Both Davidson and Donnelly were brilliant, and their confrontation towards the end of the play proved powerful stuff. 

James Mackay’s Buck was a great anti-hero. In terms of his performance, it was critical that we had to keep reminding ourselves of the pain he will be causing Sam (although he doesn't know her) by falling in love with her boyfriend. Nicholas Gauci’s Roger added into the chaos, and did inevitably add layers to Terry’s storyline of self-love, but with moments of good chemistry too. 

However, other elements of the evening were disappointing. It did feel as though the play itself was slightly messy in terms of pace and in bringing the relationships to life. Although we were folllowing two concurrent plotlines, neither offered the opportunity for full engagement, or, if they did, it was for fleeting moments. The trope of bisexual representation being presented through cheating is one that I don’t particularly enjoy. It’s been done many times before, and sometimes it can work, though something was missing the mark with this specific love-triangle dynamic. 

Terry essentially words it the best when telling Buck that Sam is the only innocent person in this whole mess, she is the only good person, and I think he is completely right. I found myself, for the first time in a while, not really rooting for anyone in terms of goals - and you do need to have characters you can pull for in a play like this. 

There were moments that I did genuinely enjoy, and I really do believe the cast are all incredibly talented, I’m just not entirely sure the writing of the play supported them. There were moments where everyone in the audience was in hysterics (and some very shocking moments indeed), and some points where only a few were - comedy as subjective as ever.

Helen Bang’s direction is true to heightened naturalism for sure, and I did enjoy it overall, however I would really love to see her direct something on a bigger scale as she has a great director’s eye. 

For all the evident flaws of an uneven production, there is an element  or two for everyone to enjoy to one degree or another - you might not be laughing all the time, but you will laugh at least some of the time. And that’s no bad thing at all.

The Crumple Zone at the Waterloo East Theatre until 22 December 

Photo Credits: Peter Davies

To post a comment, you must register and login.