Two

The comedy drama ‘Two’ written by Jim Cartwright is an interesting and challenging play. The action takes place over one night in a pub in the North West of England. The play gives a brief glimpse into the life of fourteen different people who come into the pub over the period of the night. This play can be performed with a cast member for each character or as a two hander with each actor playing seven characters. In this production the director Sean Duxbury chose the latter and used two very talented actors to take up the challenge which worked extremely well.

The challenge for Sarah Burrill and Steve Unsworth was to make the audience believe they were being introduced to different characters undergoing varying life experiences. For example subjects covered included a boyfriend who did not want to commit to marriage, domestic abuse, an elderly man whose wife had died and the loss of a child. Both actors were able to make the audience see each of these characters as individuals with the use of comedy when needed along with poignancy and sensitivity moving from character to character seamlessly.  The two actors worked very well together and were able to deliver large amounts of dialogue proficiently when performing solo holding the audience’s attention at all times. The result being two outstanding performances

The set designed by Mike Taylor looked very realistic introducing the audience to the atmosphere of the pub. I was a little confused at the beginning of the play why artistic licence was used for props such as glasses and packets of crisps. However as the play progressed the reason for this became more than apparent.

I found this play very enjoyable and entertaining as did the audience from comments I heard on leaving the theatre and also from talking to people.

Congratulation and well done to Sean Duxbury, Sarah Burrill, and Steve Unsworth and also to everyone else involved in this production.

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