CLOSE QUARTERS (Aurora Theatre)***

 

By Emma

Link: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwhWmWJPoEmHqEQek0JGlt2JEeD4eVPIX

Available until: Unknown

Aurora Theatre have been posting a lot of videos throughout lockdown and we’ve reviewed quite a lot of them. Their plays have been really international with cast and crew members in different continents.

Close Quarters is a bit different because the two characters are in the same place and they’re not social distancing but it’s still really good. It’s a sitcom about Greg and Samantha, a couple who are getting on quite well but they’re not ready to move in permanently.

Greg is a nice guy though so when the lease on Samantha’s flat ends and she can’t move into her new one straight away, he says she can stay for a couple of weeks.

Samantha moves in, Greg starts having second thoughts… and then we all go into national lockdown.

It’s a great idea for a sitcom and maybe one no-one would have thought of if there hadn’t been a real lockdown. Even if they had, maybe we wouldn’t be able to empathise with it so well but we’ve all lived through lockdowns now so the idea really works.

It was written by Ryan King and it’s great. The characters are funny and I like them both. The situations they get into are a lot of fun though things do get a bit more serious in the last couple of episodes. Apart from the last episode which is 11 minutes, the episodes are between one and a half minutes and just over five minutes so it doesn’t take long to binge-watch them.

Ryan King, Isabella So and Lulu Ward share the direction duties. It looks like it’s filmed on a laptop, mostly in a long shot so the characters can move around as much as they want and still be visible. A TV sitcom has different camera angles but that wasn’t something I missed because it’s all been set up really carefully so you do see everything you need to see.

David Ogilvie is funny as Greg and although he probably would be annoying to live with, he’s fun to watch onscreen. Nicole Garbellini is slightly clueless as Samantha, who means well but she really doesn’t think things through properly. They could maybe have had a bit more chemistry but at least it wasn’t too pornographic. Even family TV can have a bit too much kissing and groping. I think less is more.

Close Quarters is a really fun sitcom and it’s worth watching!