Eigengrau **** TNT
Penelope Skinner’s enigmatically titled 90 minute new play (it’s apparently the colour that the eye sees in total darkness) adds the graphic and the gory to what is otherwise a supremely funny contemporary tale of boy meets girl and messes her around. Mind you, the women aren’t exactly paragons in Polly Findlay’s exceptionally well acted production.
Feminist lobbyist Cassie gets more than she bargained for when Rose (the new flatmate she found on Gumtree) turns out to be not only short of funds but also on brains. Rose (all bouncy blonde curls and wonky values in Sinead Matthews’ ditsy portrayal) has, however, managed to attract smooth marketing type Mark, who swiftly ditches her and starts pursuing Cassie – though nowhere near as obsessively as the dumped Rose then chases after him.
Geoffrey Streatfeild is spot-on as the caddish Mark, who may or may not have really fallen for Alison O’Donnell’s serious Cassie. And one can’t help but warm to John Cummins’ aptly named loser Tim Muffin (Mark’s slobbish, overweight old college friend who’s taken up rent-free residence since his gran died) as he sweeps up the mess with a spring in his step and hope in his heart when Rose turns up at the fast food outlet where he works.
It’s very cynical, very well written, and spiked with some excruciatingly embarrassing moments made all the more effective by the traverse staging which splits the audience, face to face, in two.
Bush Theatre, Shepherds Bush Green, W12 8QD (
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