REVIEW: WHAT IF THEY ATE THE BABY at King’s Head Theatre 26 March – 7 April

‘The creators of the piece speak and move together with a synchronicity that is both relevant to the piece and hugely impressive to watch.’  ★★★★

The image of the ideal American housewife in 1950s suburbia has become distinctive to modern audiences. What was once an aspirational image, curated by Mad Men style advertising executives in order to sell dishwashers, is now a symbol of the sterility of suburbia and mid-century anxieties about women’s liberation. Many of us will be familiar with the term Stepford Wives, used to describe a subservient, mindless woman, who’s inability to think or behave independently appears sinister and robotic. As in Ira Levin’s novel and the subsequent film adaptations, the women - always white, always thin, always impossibly perfect - have come to embody their own critique. Meanwhile, the inner world of such women becomes consumed by the ubiquity of the image.

In What If They Ate The Baby? a pair of neighbouring housewives (performed by creators Xhloe Rice and Natasha Roland) inhabit a cartoon-esque 50s style American kitchen, deeply rooted in the uncanny valley. Ultimately, very little appears to happen, however, a judicious use of music, lighting, physical theatre and a deeply unsettling plastic mask encapsulates the gulf between how things appear and how they really are. Importantly, the source of the paranoia that stalks these women never fully comes into focus. As Rice and Roland’s characters cycle through the niceties, shades of horror are briefly illuminated then hastily extinguished. There are references to a neighbour with a suspiciously Russian-sounding surname, a passionate and ill-fated queer love affair, the sound of something heavy shifting upstairs. Rather than tackling a single issue, Rice and Roland appear to challenge the task of achieving ideal American-ness in an era where un-American activity was strictly policed. Indeed, the piece’s title imagines the unfathomable depths of horror that could lurk behind closed doors. It is precisely by not naming the fear that hysteria is able to take hold and suspicions careen out of control.

The conviction of the performance is equally impressive. The creators of the piece speak and move together with a synchronicity that is both relevant to the writing and hugely impressive to watch.  This is clearly a finely tuned relationship that has been thoughtfully and rigorously considered. Audiences will also have a chance to see Rice and Rowland’s earlier show And Then The Rodeo Burned Down, also playing at the Kings Head Theatre until April 7.

What If They Ate The Baby by Xhloe Rice & Natasha Roland at King’s Head Theatre, 26 March – 7 April

Box Office: What if They Ate The Baby | What's On | King's Head Theatre (kingsheadtheatre.com)

Lighting Design | Angelo Sagnell

Producers | Nicholas Abrams & Richard Williams in association with theSpaceUK

Reviewed by Natalie MacKinnon