one4review | On 10, Aug 2018

Handmade Theatre’s condensed version of Amelia Bullmore’s look at the enduring bond of friendship comes to the Fringe in an hour long performance at C-Cubed.  We follow three 18 year old students, who come from very different backgrounds but move into a Manchester flat together, from the early 1980s to the play’s close is 2010.  Viv is a northern girl, intelligent and hard working; Rose is extremely promiscuous and from a privileged southern English background (not even knowing what a microwave oven is) and Di is a sports-loving Irish lesbian.  This unlikely trio build a strong bond of friendship, despite having very different goals and aspirations, and rollercoaster their way through sex, loss, disappointments and different kinds of love. The cast were excellent and very convincing, demonstrating how their characters’ particular insecurities in youth go on to shape them in later life. The venue was less than ideal, excessively warm and the seating arrangement was poor, with one audience member behind me even toppling backwards and falling off the back of the staging, thankfully unhurt.  The play remained engaging and thought-provoking throughout, with surprising, almost arbitrarily inserted, developments along the way, but succeeded in keeping the audience entertained through to a well-deserved standing ovation at the end.

Reviewed by Howard

C Venues – C Cubed

5.55pm

Until 14th August