There's a hole in Henry's bucket, but Henry's problem is not a DIY one. It's more his obsession with words that begin with "O": oleander, oblivion, OK. Particularly OK. Because Henry's relationship with Elizabeth is definitely not OK. They are supposed to be celebrating their eight years together with a party. But Elizabeth dreads making the crudites and pouring the dips. She does a fine extended riff on the pointlessness of taramasalata, but what about the pointlessness of their relationship? There's a hole in it somewhere, but can either of them mend it?
The children's song is a constant refrain in this two-hander written by Chris Goode which, for £120, can be booked to be performed in your own home for up to 12 people. I caught it in a Northampton flat, and though the clutter of everyday domesticity would normally add to the experience, here the spartan surroundings rather worked against it. Henry's boy-man persona can be irritating, too, but perhaps that's the point.
There is something charged about seeing a personal relationship played out in a real domestic setting: Elizabeth doing the washing up while Henry observes how little he knows her. The show is great on how our internal monologues unspool a different narrative to the exterior we live day by day. The slightly wonky aesthetic, including a hand-held stereo, is charming, too, and you can't but fall for a show in which it rains not men, but jelly babies.
