Lunchbox Theatre at The Bridewell Theatre offers 45 minute plays that you can fit in your lunch hour. NEVER THE SAME is the latest offering from Hatstand Productions, set up by childhood friends Lily Lowe-Myers and Robyn Cooper with the aim of creating works with strong, complex and entertaining female roles.
Never The Same doesn’t disappoint. Written by Lowe-Myers who plays Sarah alongside Cooper as Liz, the two women tell an emotional tale of a friendship and the secrets and lies that tore it apart. After seven years, the last person Liz is expecting to turn up at her child’s birthday party is Sarah. But there she is, and she wants to talk while Liz just wants to forget and get on with her new life.
In a short time, both actors create convincing characters as the tale of what happened between the friends in the past is revealed through flashbacks to their younger years, drip feeding the audience with clues. This is a dark tale that requires concentration from the audience as the story unfolds quickly.
The set is busy with lots of chairs strewn around the back of the stage, these chairs are cleverly used to change setting as we move backwards and forwards in time to join up the dots and understand what has kept the once close friends apart for so long.
This is a well written play that addresses emotional issues in a sensitive way. You could do worse than spend a lunch hour with Sarah and Liz. Their story will stay with you long after you return to work.
Reviewed by Rhiannon Evans
NEVER THE SAME plays at the Bridewell Theatre until 7 October 2016
