Transitions from Edinburgh to London are very common these days, but not so easy to bring off. A short-form bravura playlet may be cheered to the rafters by a late-night, tanked-up Festival crowd and then fall to earth in the unforgiving ambience of an opened out, full-length London exposure. Not so here.
Solo performer Libby Rodliffe wisely teams up with co-writer Isley Lynn to ensure that this staging at the Park is a magnificent success. Both writing and delivery are top-notch and the play was a total hit with the press-night audience at Park Theatre 90, who are generally not easily impressed.
It is a classic demonstration of less-is-more. Matthew Cassar’s set comprises a simple white square with a desk and office chair in similar hues. Beyond that a laptop, phone and hair tie appear at points, and the rest is entirely down to Rodliffe’s performance of a galaxy of characters with a world of accents, locations and situations. This is a spell-binding performance of huge technical assurance, and there is no doubt we shall hear more from this performer, and soon.
The action focuses on Bea, a young professional in London. We meet her trying and failing to reach her father by phone, a theme that recurs, while she juggles three jobs in order to make ends meet in the big city. We see her first as a PA to a lazy and abusive boss, though largely able to work away from the office. This allows her to take up a second position as receptionist and caretaker in a luxury block of flats, multi-tasking from the front desk, while also dog-and-flat sitting for a wealthy friend travelling abroad. The humour and increasingly frenetic pace emerge from the need to somehow keep all these commitments from conflicting.
What’s truly memorable is the wit and machine-gun pace of the dialogue between all the characters Rodliffe miraculously segues between. Not only do we get to see all the layers of Bea, but we inhabit Miranda, the rapacious influencer, Agatha, the spoilt and sluttish owner of the block of flats, Niall, the fit intern, and the odious, ill-matched couple of bosses back in the office. Even the petite pooch, Parsley, is memorably evoked. There is also a great deal of inventive visual humour as director Nicky Allpress ensures every angle of space and layer of clothing on stage is deployed to meaningful effect. Oliver McNally’s lighting scheme also keeps tone and mood moving along as a series of overhead lanterns evoke a variety of times of day within a plethora of cityscapes.
Like many such madcap comedy sequences, it does have a little difficulty in finding a way to wind down and finish. The plates spin for a tad too long, and the denouement with mum and dad is unreasonably postponed. But the change of tone and pace, when it comes is movingly achieved, and these minor blemishes do not majorly detract from a show of great quality that fizzes past its audience in no time at all.
Authors: Isley Lynn & Libby Rodliffe
Performer: Libby Roddliffe
Director: Nicky Allpress
Until 6 December 2025
1 hr 40 mins with interval
Photo Credit: Harry Elletson