The Pride Plays: A Rom-Com @ Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh
Gemma McGinley's love triangle between a girl, a boy and his car is an original and sparky piece of new writing
In Gemma McGinley's A Rom-Com, Kelly (Karen Bartke) is a smart car. A very smart car. In fact, she has achieved full sentience. Neurotic, demanding and constantly feeling in competition with 'smug' Mini Coopers, Kelly is keen to experience life as fully as she can. She pesters her beleaguered owner and driver, Boy (Andrew Cameron), to buy her eyelashes for her headlights and to let her have her own 'first time' experience. For Kelly, this significant 'first' is a run through a drive-thru McDonald's.
The relationship between Kelly and Boy is very similar to that of a bickering, but devoted, married couple. Certainly, no human relationship in Boy's life threatens to complicate matters for himself and Kelly. That is until they nearly run over Girl, a beautiful stranger who has been dumped on the roadside by her feckless boyfriend. An unlikely love triangle develops, leading to a farcical and hilarious denouement.
The originality and wit of McGinley's script is undeniable. Presenting a sparky and genuinely fresh voice, it's almost hard to imagine how A Rom-Com could be rendered more enjoyable or satisfying for the audience in a polished, finalised production than in its current read-through form. The delicious silliness of the premise requires so much suspension of disbelief that any attempts to develop staging, rather than relying on the actors' physical performances and use of mime, might be counter-productive. The skilful direction by Laila Noble serves the performers well in this regard. The actors reading aloud the stage directions is novel and adds colour to the performance; the occasional fluffing of lines is immediately forgiven, and one minor incident of corpsing only adds to the hilarity.
The pantomime-esque frothiness of A Rom-Com means it offers little in terms of development of themes or exploration of ideas, but for all it lacks in heft, it makes up for in humour. Attempts to capitalise on the lightness of tone through occasional comedic dancing possibly stretch the boundaries of a Traverse audience's tolerance for fluff. Nevertheless, the assured comic timing of Bartke and Cameron ensure that the play is an enjoyable romp from start to finish. A Rom-Com secures McGinley's place as a promising and exciting new writer. [Katie McGrory]