ONE HALF OF TWO (The Cockpit)***

 

By Aashiq

Link: https://www.thecockpit.org.uk/show/one_half_of_two 

Available until: 8^th May

Age recommendation: 12+

One Half of Two is about three young women whose boyfriends have all turned out to be complete and utter FAECES. I might not know how it feels to be a woman, but I do know about horrible boyfriends. Even my husband has been known to be… mildly irritating on occasion. And don’t even get me started on how annoying my husband’s husband can be (just to be clear, that is me, there is no bigamist ménage à trois, except in my imagination sometimes. But let’s not go into that).

If anyone thinks an actual female should be reviewing this that’s a fair opinion, but none of the female bloggers have been through a messy break-up (partly because only two of them are actually legal) so you’re stuck with me. I do understand some of the basics like how to make a man think whatever I want is his idea and much high heels can hurt, but I probably don’t have a great psychological or physical understanding of what being a woman means.

There are two different versions of this play and if you rent it, you can watch either or both. Holly McConville (Belfast and also the director) and Alex Hill (Glasgow) appear in both versions. The role of London is played by Phoebe Noble (also the writer and producer) in Cast One and Emily Rayner in Cast Two. This is such a great idea. Usually, only one cast would get filmed and anyone who is only in the other cast would miss out, but with One Half of Two, they all get their chance.

The characters don’t seem to know each other. They live in three different capital cities. But they’re all going through the same thing at the same time and as they slowly go through the process of getting over the horrible boyfriend and learning that they don’t necessarily need a boyfriend in order to be happy with themselves, they’re going through similar stages. (It’s a probably good thing they don’t know each other, really. It’s bad enough having to go through a break-up at all without having to share the limelight agony with someone else.)

Sometimes the characters speak in unison but mostly they take it in turns to narrate a short segment about how things are going. The characters also appear in each other’s segments sometimes, taking the role of other people they encounter at really important moments where just talking about someone wouldn’t have the same effect.

There is something quite emotional about watching them go through their pain, separately but somehow connected. They look and feel alone sometimes, but even though what they’re going through is completely individual and they do feel and look alone, there is a sort of community sense that they’re not alone.

I think One Half of Two could really give hope to people who are going through something similar. Unlike a lot of stories about recovering from a messy break-up, it doesn’t pretend it’s easy. It doesn’t pretend you’ll look into the most gorgeous pair of brown eyes (or blue, green, grey, whatever) and then your pain will disappear because you’ve found someone else. It also doesn’t pretend that the way to get over someone is to get under someone (I’m sure it works for some people, but that doesn’t mean we should all do it). It doesn’t impose time limits (if you want to get over someone, you’ll do it in YOUR OWN TIME, not somebody else’s and if anyone has a problem with that, maybe it’s time for a friend break-up too). It just looks at the reality in a slow, steady and cathartic way. It doesn’t lie, but it does offer hope.

Phoebe Noble’s script offers stories rather than characters, but maybe that’s kind of the point. This isn’t the sort of thing that happens to a certain kind of person. It can happen to anyone. It will happen to most people. The script is split up into little moments and lots of them are really touching, like the moment on the bus, the kindness when it was needed. Holly McConville has directed this cleverly, knowing when to give a character their moment alone and when to bring everyone together, when to keep them onstage but at a distance. Props are used occasionally but always for a reason, providing not just a physical presence but embodying a psychological change.

I watched both versions of the play so I saw all four actors. It’s very interesting to see the difference between Phoebe Noble and Emily Rayner as London, Phoebe with a slightly gentler presence, Emily with a bit of fire but both bringing something real and relevant to their role. Alex Hill is earnest and oddly reassuring as Glasgow, a quality that could see her taken advantage of by some people but so completely valued and loved by others.

Holly McConville as exceptional as Belfast, with a very appealing stage presence and emotionally so open. Actually, maybe it’s a good thing there wasn’t an audience or they’d be storming the stage to give her a hug. This is not to take anything away from the other performers – more that Holly makes Belfast into someone who needs a hug. I’d watch my step a bit more with the others. I feel like Glasgow would rather be giving hugs than receiving them and the Londons are both trying so hard to be independent, I wouldn’t quite like to do anything that might take that away from them (or that might get me into trouble. I am so totally gay, but that doesn’t mean I can initiate physical contact with every woman I see, even when we’re not social distancing. And I wouldn’t really storm a stage to hug a character who looked like they needed it. I know it’s been a very long and agonising year, but I haven’t forgotten how to behave in a theatre quite yet).

 

A great idea and a really lovely play.