Er. Review

Er. Review

20th – 26th August 2025

Jay and Tess meet at a party. It’s not just any party though, it’s the party to end all parties. Jay was part of the so-called Session Crew who were good at two things: drugs and art. He loved parties. Tess didn’t really go to them, but she put on her best gold jumpsuit and made her merry way with her housemates, Sammy and Flo.

“Not only was it believable and endearing but it left me wanting to know more”

However, the audience meet Jay and Tess when they’re stuck in purgatory. As they’re waiting to be reborn, they try to decide what they will become but in order to do this, they have to relive their past first. 

So, they don relatively rose-tinted glasses and take the audience on a retrospective journey of what happened on the night that brought them together. 

The set was very simple with minimal props, but it worked. As the play went on, the audience were able to piece together more pieces of their puzzle and we could easily imagine Jay and Tess amidst the moving bodies, chatter and booming music of a house party. 

And that was all down to the superb dialogue which not only painted a very clear picture of where they were, but it was also incredibly clever and snappy, with plenty of laugh out loud moments — my favourite being “He used to wear Lynx Africa. How can someone wear a continent?”.

The conversation between the two actors also perfectly captured the clumsiness of being human, particularly one of a certain age; how strange being drunk is and the even stranger things it makes us say; and why you should never ask someone why their dad is in prison. 

Writer and Director Barnaby Tobias deserves a special mention for managing to put a poetic spin on coming up — something I didn’t even realise was possible until yesterday evening.  

While the dialogue was impressive, I believe it worked because of the chemistry between the two characters, played by Drew Sheridan-Wheeler and Emily Cosaitis, and the ease with which they bounced off each other for the duration of the play. 

Not only was it believable and endearing but it left me wanting to know more, particularly of what happened next. I think that was the whole point though and the list of questions I scribbled in my notebook was just me being greedy. 

So, if you’re lucky enough to have The White Bear as your local and even if you’re not, go and spend an hour or so in Kennington this bank holiday weekend. Otherwise, you might just be too late.

Maggie John

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