The Significant Other can be best described as flicking through the glossy pages of a real life-story magazine.
It portrays snippets of the relationship between two people in 10 different scenes played out within a strict 10minute window and each one is as far removed in terms of content as the previous story.
Performed at The Park Theatre in Finsbury, The Significant Other explores relationships from the hope, boundaries, friendship and passion experienced in every day life.
It expertly portrays the awkwardness experienced by two strangers, to the comforts of a long-term relationship and friendship and even tries its hand at the human interaction with an alien, guardian angel and ghost.
Each scene is influenced by a different genre from comedy, fantasy, crime and even a musical, spanning both the past and future ideas of the world.
The audience is kept guessing at each turn and the play certainly grips your attention.
Three scenes stood out for me:
Coyi – a fired up couple are watching their football team on the telly (they can’t be there as the boyfriend lost the game tickets).
She tells him that she went to the bookies and made a bet on their future if their team wins 2-1 and they get engaged to marry.
The audience feels each missed goal and penalty and enters the couple’s living room as they agonise the unpredictable nature of the football match and the hope they’ll win a fortune.
A Month and Five Days – Set in the past in a library, a visitor is attempting to study but keeps talking and distracting himself as he is told off and told to be quiet.
The librarian is actually in love with the visitor and in an aside, bursts into song calling herself ‘Julie Andrews’ after adopting his surname.
This shy librarian has hopes of marriage and the couple realise they are perfectly suited to each other, as long as he can respect the rules to be quiet.
Icebergs – A somewhat ditzy brother and sister plot to steal from their employer but at the last minute, the sister pulls out and we see them reveal their thoughts and feelings of being stuck in a little village, missed opportunities and tattered dreams of the future.
By far one of the funniest scenes, the audience sees the protective older brother nature towards his sister, as well as his mocking and arrogant character.
But in the end, there is no doubt that sibling love reigns rather than sibling rivalry.
Performed as part as a festival of genres, the play is unlike any I have seen, and despite their short length, strangely the audience was still able to bond with the characters and the personal impact was not tarnished.
Produced by Neil Byden, Serena Haywood and Laura Kim on behalf of The Pensive Federation, it was a light and refreshing performance on a Friday evening and it felt as if we were sitting among friends in the compact loft studio.