Theatre review: Table 17

Douglas Lyons' Table 17 opens with something of a personal theatrical nightmare for me: An announcement informing the audience that any time a character in the play asks a question, we are very much expected to answer it. The effect this has probably varies from performance to performance but, combined with the glitterball and pre-show soundtrack of hen night favourites, tonight it resulted in an evening of whooping, heckling, gasping, shrieking and yaaaas queening to make a 1980s American sitcom audience sound demure. And that was just the teenage boys. The question is, under the noise, did the show itself have much to say? A couple of years after their breakup, Dallas (Jamael Westman) has invited his ex-fiancée Jada (Marisha Wallace) out for a drink. We open with Jada fretting over what to wear for an evening that may or may not be a date.

Jumping between scenes together and asides to the audience about how they really feel under the awkwardness and bluster, the play also flashes back from this night out to the one where the pair first met, and various other ones over the course of their relationship.

Westman and Wallace are big names and in the leads they don't disappoint, bringing as much charm as they do insecurity to characters neither of whom is sure where they stand, or even where they actually want this evening to lead. But the star of the show turns out to be Michael Rishawn - he plays all the other roles but predominantly two very contrasting ones: River, the bitchy waiter and occasional narrator, and in flashback Eric, an aggressively heterosexual trolley dolly with a part to play in their breakup.

Add in a douchebag barman and Rishawn is really showing some serious range, both in characters and in providing both the comedy and the sexy, the latter leaving me conflicted because yes, it's lovely that despite the mainstream constantly trying to drag the country to the far right we still live in a world where a row of boys on what looked like a school trip unashamedly shriek with excitement when Rishawn gets his tits out; but it is quite annoying in practice. Also, I hope the Kiln gave those seats a good clean after the show.

In any case, the way Zhailon Levingston's production seems to be trying to outright distract from Lyons' play itself only made me want to scrutinise it more: My feeling is that the comic lines are pretty good, and really don't need the audience to be hyped up to the point of "Oprah's just given everyone free bees."The attempts at something more serious feel a lot flimsier though, and where I would normally enjoy an ambiguous ending, after an evening that's skirted around saying much of substance it feels like a cop-out.

Table 17 by Douglas Lyons is booking until the 24th of October at the Kiln Theatre.

Running time: 1 hour 35 minutes straight through.

Photo credit: Steve Gregson.