Watching Stars

Kate Gilbert
Pure: Blue, Printworks, Manchester
24:7 Theatre Festival

Watching Stars

After meeting in a night club, Matt and Faith find a bench next to a deserted riverbank in the early hours of the morning. Here they get to know one another and make revelations about their lives, until Matt makes a big revelation about where he should be the next morning, and then Faith makes a bigger one about why she chose him to leave the club with.

Renowned local actor and director Wyllie Longmore, a big supporter of new writing and new playwrights, directs the piece with a generally slow pace, which works well with the style of the writing. It is nice to see a piece of old-fashioned naturalism that all takes place in a single, unbroken scene rather than the more cinematic plays of short scenes that are much more common now. However a lot of the time it seems like just a lot of talk, and the two characters bicker like children so much that it is rather a surprise that either of them stays for more than five minutes. The main subject of the play is sex and sexual consent, but it takes a long time to get to it.

Nick Mason and Claire Disley give great performances as the two characters. There is some good writing here, but it seems stretched rather thinly over the running time.

Reviewer: David Chadderton

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