Review: Fruitcake, The Hope Theatre

First-year student ‘Fruitcake’ (Jamiee Doyle) is enjoying her first year at university. Classes are fine, and she’s happily thrown herself into the parties-and-hookups scene. Someone has really caught her eye, though; a blunt, slightly off-putting girl on her psychology course. As the pair start to spend time together, the darkness of their pasts threatens to overwhelm their burgeoning relationship.

Doyle is a dynamic performer, immediately connecting with the audience. Her delivery is relaxed, natural, and the closeness of the space at The Hope Theatre makes the script feel like a conversation or confession. A script that flits between humour and disquiet can be difficult to balance, but it’s managed well here; the swift changes in tone are affecting.

A lot of the story lies in the unsaid. The romantic interest appears to be neurodivergent and suffering from trauma, but the details of this – which are inherent to understanding her – are barely expanded on. For both Fruitcake and the audience, this nameless figure remains an unsolved puzzle by the end of the story. Fruitcake, too, is a bit of a mystery. Despite coming across as a very open character, chatting away to the audience, we don’t learn all that much about who she really is. It’s frustrating, but true to life; how much do we tell another person about ourselves when getting to know them? When do we decide that they get to know the stories behind our scars, mental or physical?

Yet, billed as a mystery, Fruitcake’s central mystery never feels quite compelling enough. Perhaps if we were given more breadcrumbs throughout the story it would be easier to become immersed, but as it stands everything is a little too vague. Some details of both characters’ lives are revealed right at the end of the play, but it’s slightly unsatisfying. We don’t learn enough to understand much more about them, and the back-heavy exposition leaves little room for exploration of these final-hour revelations.

The framing, too, is more rough sketch than solid ground. The sounds of a busy office play before the action begins, but it’s not until the end of the piece that we actually end up in that location. This sudden change of scenery, when it comes, feels a bit out of the blue, and the play reaches its far too rapid conclusion shortly after. There are ideas of cyclicality in the story’s structure, but the circle just doesn’t quite connect.

Bulking out the character list, the use of recordings to provide the auxiliary voices in this one-hander is a great choice, and Doyle’s way of interacting with them feels organic. Transitions between scenes are faultless – the production is well-rehearsed, thoughtfully designed, and professionally executed.

Although Fruitcake may be lacking a little in intrigue, the strength of its parts elevates it. A tweak here and there, a hint more depth and it will be fully cooked.

You can read more about this show in our recent interview here.

Written by: Jamiee Doyle
Dramaturgy by: Eleanor Golding
Directed by: Rachel Duncan
Produced by: Fruitcake Productions

Fruitcake plays at The Hope Theatre until Sunday 10 August