Review: One Life Stand by Middle Child Theatre

Middle Child return to gig theatre with an original show exploring the opportunities for escapism and reinvention that come packaged into the offer of an affair. One Life Stand is a show about operating on impulse: Kat (Tanya Loretta Dee) craves glory, Kit (Edward Cole) is seeking to escape responsibility, Moma (Anna Mitchelson) has nothing left to lose – except her phone, leading her straight into Kit's path.

Eve Nicol's script weaves the plot from strands of semi-intentions: a failed job interview, a lost iPhone, half a bottle of wine. There are so many actions started by characters but never finished – Moma touts an obsession with communism, but has become slave to a billboard in the shopping centre which provides the perfect lighting for selfies. Hints of potential hang in the air, meaning that when we reach that crucial moment, the final step towards actual adultery feels sickeningly inevitable and has a gripping emotional payoff.

Nicol's prose lingers in the realm of pop culture a bit too long. Dee delivers an extensive post-coital monologue which, while spirited, feels repetitive, bringing up yet more gaming/film/literative touchstones. Characters in the show cling onto similar reference points as a substitute for meaningful interaction, and Nicol runs the risk of doing the same with the play at large. 

James Fraser and Honeyblood's music interrupts sequences rudely: Mitchelson's vocals seem dissonant at first, but over time they prove a welcome background noise to Cole's monologue.