Review: Girl Out of The Blue, Tabard Theatre 

What do you do when you get a mysterious call from a young journalist who might have a lead in to a great story? As a seasoned, successful foreign correspondent, obviously you accept and, obviously, you decide on a wine bar as a meeting place as only a decent self-respecting journo would. Indeed, this opening to Girl Out of the Blue amusingly sets up an almost running gag of each scene beginning with a bottle of wine or prosecco being poured into glasses and guzzled (alright, there is tea at some point).

But all is not what it seems in Giles Cole’s new play, receiving its first production here at the ever-resourceful Tabard Theatre, a hop and a skip from Turnham Green tube and brilliantly run by husband and wife team Simon and Barbara Reilly (Take Note Theatre).

I am sure I can mention without spoiling the whole play that, right from the start, Cole gets things going with the revelation that the ”young journalist” is in fact someone claiming to be the journo’s daughter. Now, for a middle-aged man with a wife and two teenage daughters, that is quite a shocker. And ‘claiming to be’ brings its own relevance, because Cole cleverly plays with the audience in terms of who to believe, never letting us rest, with twists and turns in how this story evolves and, more importantly, what ramifications may result for all involved. 

The journo is Doug (Jonathan Sidgwick) and his wife is Maya (Seeta Indrani), while the girl out of the blue is Abi (Miranda Braun), who has a mother, Beth (Sarah Berger). Beth seems highly theatrical at first but when we learn she is an out of work actress then all makes sense (shades of Edina and Saffy from Ab Fab here). She makes no attempt at finding work – or a new man for that matter. Maya has seen it all before, with her philandering husband off on foreign assignments for months on end, while she is left to keep down a professional job and bring up two kids. She is rightly suspicious of the whole set-up, with this dubious girl claiming to be her husband’s daughter and out to get money. And even after all this might be cleared up, would you really want this man in your life? That goes for her, Beth, and for Abi. Can increasingly put-upon Doug even wriggle out of this one?

I will not give away any more – suffice to say, Cole excellently keeps the ball rolling with a feel for dialogue that is crisp and natural. He also gets a cast that can deliver. Braun as Abi particularly shines among a strong quartet, though there were some audibility issues, especially at important moments. All the right acting decisions are there but it needs more vocal presence from some performances at times to really punch home the tense moments and get all the laughs that are undoubtedly there. Director Jonas Cemm can easily rectify that, as his marshalling of his actors and the text are exemplary.

The play nearly falls into the TV/radio trap of small scenettes, but Cole mercifully avoids that, helped by slick, well-drilled scene changes and an easy set, designed by Bethany Blake (panels that create space but allow actors to enter and exit seamlessly). It’s all punctuated by musical links composed by William Godfree on a jaunty piano that give just the right feel of quirkiness to mirror the proceedings on stage. 

This is a well-written piece, that is pleasantly entertaining and here gets a persuasive, engaging – and boozy! – production.

Written by Giles Cole
Directed by Jonas Cemm
Design by Bethany Blake
Sound by Andrew Johnson
Music by William Godfree

Girl Out of the Blue plays at the Tabard Theatre until Saturday 10 October.