An interesting insight into what happens when that drunken promise from your 20s becomes a reality in your 30s.Rating
Ok
Sitting on the banks of the Thames in Hammersmith is one of the best places to be on a sunny London evening. As the sun sets and golden hour kicks in, it’s pretty perfect. Riverside Studios has a ringside seat for the views, and it’s got a real buzz about it tonight as an array of shows take place across its various spaces. While in one studio Have I Got News for You is filming, I’m hoping for less references to Trump as I head into Studio 3 for Eggs Aren’t That Easy To Make
The play tells the story of Clare (Rachel Andrews) and Lou (Esther Carr), a couple who want a baby but need to find a sperm donor to make this happen. A fairly hasty flashback sequence shows Claire with her best friend Daniel (Tom Kingham) making a drunken promise, as many of us did in our early 20s. But this is a promise Daniel has not forgotten: that should Clare ever want a baby, he’d be a willing sperm donor. As the plot flashes forward ten years, it seems they’ve aged a lot more than a decade. There are a few patronising allusions to their age, with references to excitement over salad spinners and calling dating app Hinge “the hinge”. As someone in the audience who is presumably the age they’re now meant to be, this feels a bit insulting and a little lazy. There could have been better ways of showing the transition from the drunken excitement of your early 20s to the slightly more mellow mid 30s.
The plot feels confused, with timelines that don’t quite make sense and scenarios that wouldn’t happen in real life. The couple and Daniel attend pre-natal classes before they’re even pregnant; this is frankly bizarre and breaks the illusion of the story. There are a few half hearted attempts to show that having a baby isn’t easy for every woman, but this feels tokenistic and frankly has potential to upset any audiences members who might be on their own difficult journey to become parents.
Having said all this, there are some funny moments in the show. Kingham is a highlight as the sperm wielding best friend who gets a little too invested — he’s charming and one of the most believable characters, particularly towards the end of the play. The chemistry between the characters fluctuates throughout, perhaps due to a problem with the script, which feels a little slow at times and includes lines that are hard to believe such close friends would say in reality. Sophia Rosen-Fouladi does her best playing Daniel’s forgotten girlfriend Naomi, but again this character doesn’t feel believable, apart from a particularly amusing moment where she tries to make her boyfriend go running with her.
Riverside Studios offers black box performance spaces, which can make it harder to suspend disbelief and transport us to a cosy living room or the side of a duck pond, but the cast, effective use of lighting and the props do a good job of creating the illusion. Representing changing seasons through thrown confetti in various shapes and colours is particularly effective and amusing.
Whilst there are definitely improvements that could be made in the script and plot, this play does have potential. With less reliance on easy targets in the humour and more research into the toll trying to have a baby can take on any couple, this could be a really moving piece of theatre. Today, however, I’m left a little cold and wondering if they’ll still be a hint of sunset when I leave the theatre doors.
Written by Maria Telnikoff
Directed by Lauren Tranter
Produced by Big Sofa Theatre
Eggs Aren’t That Easy to Make plays at Riverside Studios until Sunday 12 April.
