Review Theatre: Love and Understanding | Courtyard Theatre | eternal triangle | Natelie Lesser

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The Review - THEATRE by NATALIE LI
Published: 7 May 2009

Dark twist in eternal triangle

LOVE AND UNDERSTANDING
Courtyard Theatre

LOVE is never easy and neither is understanding, as this production reveals.
Set in the modern day, possibly in London, a love triangle develops as one ego and two hardworking individuals battle it out – all over countless glasses of wine and long, overdone dialogue.
Neal, played by Joseph Wilkins, is the dedicated doctor working all hours, while his girlfriend Rachel (Natalie Lesser) does the same.
A dwindling sex life and the strains of modern day life have taken their toll on the couple; they communicate with each other solely through Post-it notes.
Enter Dan Coffey’s arrogant and flighty Ritchie who returns after travelling the world to put a spanner in the works.
Egging on the downfall of their relationship, Ritchie’s couch-hopping leaps to bed-hopping as he captures Rachel at her most fragile and vulnerable.
The action is played out in a set resembling an Ikea showroom, doubling up as a hospital and a pub where numerous conversations attempt to lay bare the vulnerabilities of each character as the story takes a darker twist. Yet, somehow, Joe Penhall’s exploration of a modern-day relationship is predictable at every turn.
Characters weave in and out of the realistic set complete with a working kettle and bottles of wine – but it seems the cast are far more consumed with props than drawing out the depth and intensity of the serious situation they are facing.
All that seems to be left is a bunch of fairly unexplored characters in a unremarkable set. Love and Understanding is a mere hour and a half, but it feels much too long all the same.
Until May 17
0870 163 0717

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