REVIEW: STRINGS at Lion & Unicorn Theatre 24 - 28 September 2024

'One of the most exciting companies for new writing in London' ★★★★

When are relationships ever straightforward?

Sláinte! Theatre is a Scottish and Irish Theatre Company based in London with the aim to champion Scottish and Irish creatives, giving them a platform to be seen and heard. Their latest outing 'strings' tells of a love story where a relationship between two young people doesn't go as smoothly as they had wanted.

In a time where it is scarce to find the one you eventually fall in love with without finding them on an app, 'strings' is more than a play about romance. The play follows the lives of Sophia (Kimberley Taylor) and Alex (Aaron Devine), two people in their mid-twenties who grow together and figure out what it means to be an adult, what they want from life, and their relationship, a play that is as much about learning about themselves as much as learning from each other. 

It's at a friend's party when they first meet each other. Alex invites Sophia over to his flat for a drink; days turn into weeks, weeks turn into months, and eventually, the couple move into together. It isn't until we notice that sizeable time has passed that emotional baggage of the two begin to weigh down their perfect start. Alex admits he '[might not] be a nice person' owing to his anxieties of not fitting in and not being enough, perpetuated from his childhood in Belfast being a Catholic attending a Protestant school. Warning flags chime as they are thrown into unsteadiness when bereavement, financial worries, and workplace jealousy crash between them. The themes of religion and identity swirl between them where their differences slowly make it harder for them to understand each other.

The first thing you notice is the delicate ceiling decorations of snapshots of Sophia and Alex's tumultuous relationship hanging, sometimes swinging from the blow of the air conditioning, that are physical touchstones for important moments of their lives together. A polaroid of the two on the sofa, a concert ticket, a plane ticket, a postcard, an apology letter. Sophia mentions about the invisible string theory where everyone has someone in their lives who is attached to them by an unbreakable string that transcends time, distance, and geography. So like the snapshots that twinkle over them like the stars they'd talk about gazing along with their white picket fence future, the fragility of their emotional baggage knot and tangle around each other.

You have to feel sorry for Sophia (Taylor) as her love for Alex makes it incredibly difficult for her to maintain a healthy work relationship and to set her own anxieties and desires aside to maintain a supportive partner for a broken Alex. At times your heart breaks at moments where her efforts are quickly dashed and her optimism melts into sorry defeat and frustration.

This is not Kimberley and Aaron's first time performing together as Kimberley's piece 'A Weekend Away at the Hotel Decevoir' made with her theatre company Chalkhill Theatre was at the 2021 Edinburgh Fringe. They two have great chemistry on stage, particularly during their honeymoon phase. Moments that genuinely fill your heart with utter joy.

The writing (also by Kimberley Taylor and Aaron Devine) is impressively mature. Their keen eye for nuance and their ability to tell the same story but from their perspectives, bringing their own agendas and interpretations to the situation, makes you want to lean forward and sink your teeth into which version of the truth is right. On some occasions, the pacing could've improved as moments of pathos were quickly changed by one of the character's introspections making it hard to adjust. It felt tonally there were good moments that needed to breathe more at times.

Both actors monologue well, notable mention for Devine who, with his Andrew Scott-esque bravado, riffs so well that he makes you believe he is plucking his stories out of thin air and telling them in the moment.

Special mention goes to the director Tara Noonan who uses her actors well in the space allowing them to find fully-fledged thought-out characters. The tech, however, was something to be desired, as the lighting almost felt like an afterthought that could've been used more cleverly to highlight more from the two individuals.

A very capable piece that stands very well on its feet as a heartbreaking snapshot of a passionate relationship between two people who have fallen head over heels with each other. Sláinte! Theatre are ones to watch for one of the most exciting companies for new writing in London.

strings

By Kimberley Taylor and Aaron Devine

Sláinte! Theatre

24th September to 28th September

£15 (Concessions £13)

75 minutes

https://www.thelionandunicorntheatre.com/whats-on