The concept is the strongest part of Tori Allen-Martin’s two-act play, the first half of which we watch prerecorded at home, the second live in the theatre. Following the performers from screen to stage is a smart form of storytelling, creating a sense of anticipation with the prebuilt backstory we uncover online. But that’s where the innovation stops with this two-hander.
Filmed as if on Zoom, act one finds Liv (Allen-Martin) and Theo (Tim Bowie) catching up during the pandemic after a fraught break in their more-than-friendship. Online, they joke and push through small talk, clear that something harder to discuss lies underneath. Directed by Christa Harris, this first part has the natural pace of Zoom conversations that we’re now so familiar with, but after two years of jolting screens and missed sentences, it comes too late in the wave of pandemic theatre to feel anything other than formulaic.
On camera, Theo drops a bombshell on Liv, while she feels that her news for him has to be given in person. And so to the Park theatre (which has been beautifully refurbished over the last year) for act two. Directed by Timothy O’Hara, this half sees the uncertain duo meet on a park bench, “our bench”, to say what couldn’t be said over Zoom.
Roving around “Dorris” – the bench’s dedication sweetly becoming its identity – the pair chat on a set of crunchy wood chips and crumpled litter. Veering between wanting to be together and never wanting to see each other again, they comb through the mess of their relationship history, with Liv finally revealing how hard the last year has been for her. The best bits of Allen-Martin’s writing come through her humour, when they discuss the sanitary effects of antidepressants, for example, and Theo goofily admits his lockdown-induced addiction to The Crown.
Though decently engaging and well performed, the content of both acts is so predictable that it feels little more than an extended drama exercise. While its story may not be particularly revelatory, Park Bench’s splitting of the format of a single work between a digital and in-person experience opens up an exciting area of theatre, one that will hopefully be explored more ambitiously in the near future.
• At Park theatre, London, until 14 August.
