This is Living

by Liam Borrett

seen at the Trafalgar Studios Two on 6 June 2016

Yet another short intense play, although this production is lengthened by having an interval. Liam Borrett directs Michael Socha as Michael and Tamia Kari as Alice in his own play about coming to terms with devastating loss. Sarah Beaton designed the extraordinary set; the acting space is a sheet of black plastic raised on a small dais, and covered with a thin film of water.

Michael is cradling Alice at the beginning, water seeping into their clothes. Alice is totally unresponsive at first, then chokes out a mouthful of water and behaves as if awaking after a party binge. Flashbacks show the couple's courtship and the strain of Alice's miscarriage, then their delight in having a little girl. But all the while, the question is pressing - is Michael dreaming all this? How will he allow himself to let Alice go? Or are we also witnessing Alice's gradual acceptance of the situation she must confront?

Boa

by Clara Brennan

seen at Trafalgar Studios Two on 3 March 2015

This is a two-handed play starring Harriet Walter as Boa, a British dancer and choreographer, and Guy Paul as her husband Louis, an American war journalist. It is directed by Hannah Price.

In the extremely intimate space of the Trafalgar Studio's second theatre a couple reflect on their lives together, charting the history of a long relationship in a mixture of reminiscence and re-enactment that is wise, reflective, at times amusing and at times deeply sad.