Review: We Forgive You, Patina Pataznik

Jake and Olivia grapple with every millennial’s social nightmare: the school reunion. Stuck at their reunion, they realise they’re just as disliked as they were in 2013. However, they are offered the chance to do something about it and travel back in time to stop the embarrassing event that changed the course of both their lives.

We Forgive You, Patina Pataznik is a time-travel, high school, horror two-hander. Olivia (McLeod, highly-strung and perky) and Jake (Glanc, bimbo, sweet) have a BFF energy that steers the show through its meandering plot. Since it is essentially a series of sketches strung together, WFYPP has free rein to nip in and out of different genres: Thelma and Louise-esque roadtrip flick; anti-abuse advert; and imagined biography. This lends the show its absurdist air, as does the B-movie-inspired sound and light design, deliberately OTT performances, continual fourth-wall breaking, and meta upon meta self-references.

The show’s disconnected nature means that the plot is hanging on by a thread, but McLeod and Glanc are engaging enough that it doesn’t really matter as long as they’re on stage – it’s hard to drag your eyes from either of them. WFYPP is campy, it’s kitsch, and it’s a lot of fun.