Charlie (Ben Galvin) is an unlucky guy, especially true now that his best friend George was killed in a car accident. To make matters worse, he’d just been dumped by Alex (Georgia Vyvyan), who he now meets up with to… well, it’s complicated. This student-written play (by Mariam Abdel-Razek) is a two-hander that takes us on a journey through a dual timeline narrative, exploring what happened both before and after the aforementioned tragedies occur.

The set (Tim Otto) is simple but versatile enough to both accommodate and enhance everything Abdel-Razek’s writing demands of it, whilst music or sound (Sam Tannenbaum) that plays during a scene often bleeds through during the transition into the next. This bleed-through effect works nicely, helping to tie the scenes to each other despite the differing timelines the play jumps between. The play, in general, feels really well rehearsed and smooth; often you feel slightly nervous in the audience that you might see something go horribly wrong, but that never transpires here, and indeed you never worry that it might.

The first thing my friend said as we left the Corpus Playroom was that the acting was excellent and I am inclined to agree. Galvin and Vyvyan work really well together here; the dialogue feels natural and human (sounds simple but really isn’t), and they have good chemistry on-stage. You really feel the ferocity of the arguments, the sexual tension of the silences and the awkwardness of the small talk, even if some of the physical acting leaves something to be desired (faking a trip is quite difficult, I suppose). I feel like I probably know a Charlie and an Alex, which really reflects well on Abdel-Razek, as well as the directors (Joy Gingell and Saad Siddiqui). The only way to reach such a well defined and seamless production is through working together, after all, and it’s telling that after the play finished you came away with the sense that everyone in the production had worked really hard.

"At it’s best, the writing here is remarkable”

Maybe at times, Abdel-Razek has worked too hard. The play was definitely too long, exacerbated by the fact that several scenes felt like iterations set in slightly different contexts: doing yoga, smashing the tail mirror of Alex’s car, watching TV. On their own, they’re great, but when you watch them together, often consecutively, whereby the same dynamic occurs each time (Alex tries to be sympathetic, Charlie is sarcastically dismissive, argument, joke, emotional exposition) then it can get tiring.

Had certain scenes been cut, it would have allowed more focus on some of the brilliant others. At it’s best, the writing here is remarkable. In one of the final scenes, Galvin’s Charlie is crying on the phone (something technically challenging done beautifully). For the first time, he talks in detail of the horrific grief he’s experienced, and I find myself on the verge of tears. Years ago, my cousin took his own life, and yesterday in the Corpus Playroom I could see myself sat on a step, saying Charlie’s words, crying his tears and grieving his loss. A few minutes later I found myself guffawing at his tip about how to tell if someone’s rich, whilst “I don’t like you being here because it reminds me of you being here” is a line that forced me to think deeply about former relationships.

The flaws presented must, of course, be overlooked. Any student that manages to achieve the behemoth task of writing and putting on a play deserves immense credit, but to leave a reviewer excited to see your next one is quite amazing. This production contains superb writing and excellent acting that has clearly been moulded by expert direction. Most importantly, it deserves your attendance.