Eleanor Tindall’s new play hangs on a chance meeting. Ash and Ivy bump into each other outside a nightclub, when Ivy asks for a light. But then, their paths cross again – first in a coffee shop, and then in ways that get more implausible over time. Their interactions move from awkward exchanges, through to something like friendship and then into full-throttled romance. This is their love story; unexpected, all-encompassing and like letting out a held breath.
But things couldn’t possibly be as simple as a meet-cute fling. Ivy is supposedly happy with her boyfriend Max and is trying hard to bury the feeling that something isn’t right. Ash has just left her husband-to-be Cas at the altar, but he is refusing to leave her alone and let go. Her phone is constantly ringing, her flat is overflowing with the flowers he sends to her daily. Ash and Ivy’s lives play out next to each other, merging only in the frustratingly short seconds that they do. In their own way, both are lonely and hiding big secrets. Their real selves struggle physically from beneath their skin, fighting for a way out of hiding.
Tindall’s dialogue crackles and pops, although at times the multi-rolling muddies the clarity of the narrative. Annabel Baldwin plays both Cas and Max, as well as Ivy, so in scenes of quick paced conversation, their identities sometimes get confused. As Ivy and Ash though, the actors excel. Nervous energy dominates their early meetings. They naturally and apologetically interrupt each other as they speak. As they intertwine further, they relax into the ease of their shared company.
The lights, designed by David Doyle flush pink as their fingertips touch and their bodies collide. The play has echoes of Rafaella Marcus’s excellent recent Sap as both keep the audience tantalisingly waiting for a crashing revelation. Unlike Marcus though, Tindall has thrown copious genres into her script. There’s horror, thriller and rom-com tropes all stirred into the melting pot for good measure - but rather than being a satisfying amalgamation, the result is a play that exists in a state of permanent confusion.
The central relationship loses some of its spark among the cannibalism, blood and eerie heat. But, Emily Aboud’s production eventually brings us back to Ash and Ivy’s attraction to one another. The action takes place on a bright yellow set; the walls pump and gasp with life. Under Aboud’s direction, the play swells with emotion. Despite all that’s going on around Ash and Ivy, their relationship has the audience on tenterhooks. We root for its success, in spite of all the excess clutter.