The idea of meeting someone for the first time can be daunting, your head is buzzing with questions: “will I like them?” “Will they like me?” “Will I make a fool of myself?”.
Tilda Cobham-Hervey’s gently affecting Two Strangers Walk Into a Bar allows two members of the audience to meet and enjoy a drink together. Guided through the process using headsets, a script, and a few props, you have the opportunity to genuinely connect with someone without all the fuss of small talk, and devoid of the anxiety either of you might usually bring to such a situation.
Tilda’s performance monologue (in your ear) gives intimacy to big ideas about life, the universe and human connection, while encouraging you to be open and honest with your counterpart.
Given the nature of the show, every performance will be different, shaped by the participants. I was delighted to have met the person opposite, we both fully bought into the process, which made for a fun, positive and meaningful encounter.
I walked out in a reverie, my head buzzing with questions: “why do we focus so much on endings, rather than notice the continual beginnings of things?” “What are the things that unite us?” “Who are all these strangers on Nicholson Street, where are they going, who and what do they love?”
Two Strangers Walk Into a Bar is a powerful, life-affirming and intoxicating experience that allows us (for a moment) to zoom out, to acknowledge that we are tiny specks, on a tiny speck in an unfathomable void, but we are in it together, so we had better be good to each other.