Werner Heisenberg was a German physicist (he is a major character in Michael Frayn’s play Copenhagen), but Simon Stephen’s two-hander isn’t biographical. The title is because it centres on uncertainty following the scientist’s concept of the uncertainty principle, which posits that to accurately measure some pairs of properties at the same time—both speed and location for instance—is impossible. It became part of the title for its 2018 UK première production, but, though Heisenberg’s principle may have shaped the writing, the play doesn’t require its audience to know any physics.
It opens on St Pancras Station where, with no explanation, middle-aged Georgie plants a kiss on the neck of Alex, a 75-year-old butcher who is a complete stranger. As originally written, Alex is a man, but in this revival, Alex is a woman, and director Katherine Farmer, without altering the text, makes this a queer story.
Her production is staged very simply with just two metal chairs against the studio’s bare wall with a squiggle of blue neon of uncertain significance. Hugh Sheehan’s sound design and Rajiv Pattani’s lighting conjure the trains and the bustle of the station, create an intimate atmosphere and match emotional temperature sometimes with the music, maybe pop, maybe Bach, that Alex has playing on her headphones. It keeps things fast-moving as the action changes from station to butcher’s shop or bedroom.
Are we watching the romantic flowering of genuine affection between this ill-matched pairing or is it a con trick? Maybe both, but impossible to measure at the same time.
Faline England plays impulsive Geordie, receptionist at a primary school (she says), but do primary schools have receptionists? She comes up with a lot of lies in a barrage of verbiage. How and why has she tracked Alex down to her butcher’s shop? This feels like harassment (I’d run a mile to escape her), but Alex goes from a baffled “why are you talking to me?” to being increasingly attracted.
Jenny Galloway gives Alex a calm front but full of feeling, that more intense when it shows through. She has had a lone life, never in a real relationship though still remembering the girl she loved long ago, and she isn’t the dupe Georgie might think her, though she seems to accept her stories.This is a touching and beautifully shaded performance, its unshowy reticence still packed with feeling.
In what could be a mawkish encounter, these two actresses manage to make a sex scene romantic even though they have only two chairs to stand in for a double bed.
What difference does the gender change make? I was seeing the play for the first time so can’t say. It’s possible that the age gap between two women is easier to accept than in a heterosexual relationship, but aloneness isn’t gender-specific. The relationship’s start is more difficult to believe in; that’s the biggest uncertainty.