My Dinner With Andre

Sometimes, if you have rich, vibrant, hippy friends, you end up in conversations where half of you soaks up their traveller’s tales and marvellously skewed wisdom; and the other half just thinks “you frigging trustafarian git”. And yet you can’t stop listening. Their passion is contagious, and despite their experiences being so far out of whack with your own budget, you just can’t tear yourself away. My Dinner with Andre is the best of all those conversations, except sober and eloquent. Struggling playwright Wallace meets up with old theatre buddy Andre, whom he’s successfully avoided for years after Andre ‘dropped out.’ Set almost entirely in a restaurant, what begins like a seventies Allen-esque comedy quickly becomes an engaging, intelligent and discursive meditation on what it is to be alive. Surprisingly unpretentious and humorous, both lead characters are completely believable, and the watcher is gifted the weird and enjoyable sensation of being a third party at a fascinating meal.