theatre review

Power Lunch by Alan Ball

Scorch Theatre

Power Lunch provides a short but sharp hour of what can best be described as a pseudo-psychological romp. A chance meeting between a business man and a business woman in a restaurant quickly unravels a kind of collective neurosis, as power-relations and modern insecurities are played out with hyperbolic precision. And it is not only gender roles which are challenged – once the waiter Dorothy and the waitress Donald join the couple, some serious role playing questions the very concept of definite gender-identity. As you would expect from the writer of 'Six Feet Under and 'American Beauty, this is a stylish, darkly humorous and well-observed show, but at times it gets a little bit too hysterical and silly for its own good.

Open House Public House, 8 – 25 May (not 12, 13, 19, 20), times vary, £10.00 (£8.00), fpp 42

tw rating: 3/5

published: Aug-2008

[Jessica Nero]


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