Review: Spin Cycle, Etcetera Theatre

Sometimes a set just puts you in a good mood. Entering the Etcetera Theatre to find the stage strewn with loaded clothes lines and a pair of cartoonish washing machines pulsing with internal lighting put me in just the right frame of mind for this agile relationship play. I swear I could even smell a waft of detergent from the drying undergarments – surely a hint of Bold, or perhaps Lenore hung in the air?

We meet Kitt (Zofia Zerphy, also the writer) and Noel (Rhiannon Bell) doing their laundry, and as a ‘meet cute’ it works just fine, with a familiar tang of Friends to make us feel at home. Kitt has the knack of the temperamental equipment and helps Noel operate the machine with the sticky door.

Soon the pair are chatting away easily, and it seems the foundations of a relationship are being laid. It perhaps helps that they’re both single gay artists: Kitt’s preferred medium is collage, while Noel is a sculptor. Sometimes writers feel self-conscious addressing their own medium, and it’s not at all unusual for them to transpose discussions that might seem indulgent onto another creative discipline. Be that as it may, Zerphy draws some rich business from sculpting in particular, sensually evoking Noel’s process and skilfully building a physical intimacy from her demonstration of how she would approach having Kitt as a model.

Just as an archetypal love story seems to be taking shape, something happens to destabilise expectations. I won’t detail exactly what this is, but Zerphy is to be commended for digressing from a tried and tested romantic formula. It’s always interesting to have your assumptions challenged, and the uncertainty this plot twist delivers works well to generate intrigue as the play shifts gears and starts to focus on memory and recollection.

I have to caveat this praise by confessing that I couldn’t quite figure out the mechanism that brought about this interesting movement of the dramatic goalposts. My companion was equally perplexed by what seemed to us to be a missing detail – or at least a detail we both missed. It’s totally legitimate to play with the reality of a narrative, but you risk frustrating the audience if they can’t get their heads round the internal logic of how you’re doing this.

But this remains a highly accomplished production. There’s a lot of truth resounding through Zerphy’s script, and she and Bell’s performances also have an undeniably authentic feel to them. If the obscure mechanics of the narrative niggled me a little, I had no such reservations about the characters being brought to life in this appealingly dressed laundrette of love.

Written by: Zofia Zerphy
Directed by: Bethan Rose
Produced by: Berserk Theatre

Spin Cycle has concluded its run at Etcetera Theatre but plays as part of SE Fest in September at the Bridge House Theatre and Brockley Jack Studio Theatre.