What happens when two near strangers spend too much time together? That’s the crux of Robert Farquhar’s two-hander about a lonely man and woman who throw the dice on a weekend in rainy Blackpool.
Matt Scantlebury is terrific as the outwardly effusive but inwardly crumpled Eddie, who somehow manages to persuade the differently broken Crystal (played with a heart-breaking, fading spark by Chloe Norris) to check in with him for the dirty weekend.
It’s a brilliantly funny play, and Angela Rowe’s direction unashamedly goes for the laughs, particularly in the central clumsy sex scene. The denouement is perhaps unconvincing, but that’s down to the writer and not the production.
This is a chillingly real and entertaining tale of the search for love, butting up against the reality of vices amongst the ices. Go see.
