Review – The Situation
A young woman enters the online dating world soon after her boyfriend of 4 years dumps her, only to experience all the usual problems: misunderstandings, lies, awkward encounters and incomprehensible internet slang.
Anyone who has flirted on Facebook or considered internet dating could relate to something in this. The unnamed character’s neurotic thoughts and narrations were instantly recognisable to me. The intimate venue at the lovely Ayers House made it seem like she was divulging her innermost thoughts to her friends over a glass of wine. This caused a slight problem, in that because I had experienced many of her situations myself, the play didn’t feel entirely new or surprising. I just kept getting a, “Yeah, I’ve been there, girl” feeling throughout. Nevertheless, the charming actress managed to make it funny – although I actually think the older members of the audience that had less familiarity with the situations laughed far harder than me, so perhaps this serves as a good introduction to the online dating world. There were a few other things that, had it been any other type of performance, I would have picked up on. There were some garbled words, and a few factual errors (when listing creatures of the undead, werewolves should not be included), but given that this was a girl casually chatting to the audience, it would make sense. I constantly make mistakes in everyday conversation, after all.
This performance was short and sweet, and would recommend it to anyone who has made an arse of themselves, whether in person or online.
