The Stage

Waiting for Romeo

Published Thursday 15 January 2009 at 14:35 by Aleks Sierz

In a nameless besieged city, two youthful sisters offer two very different responses to the hell that rages outside. While Talya hides behind a curtain of romantic fantasies, fuelled by her collection of self-help books, the pregnant Raneen reacts in a much more practical way - she’s the one who ducks the bullets and buys the food. When a nameless soldier crashes into their lives, both women have to decide whether he is the man of their dreams.

Sarah Grochala’s Waiting for Romeo, which was an Edinburgh hit in 2006, is an uneasy mix of absurdist fantasy and real-life horror. Partly a satire on self-improvement manuals and partly a cry of despair at inhumanity, the play is also a meditation on female desire, here split between girlie romance and practical needs.

The trouble with the play is that it feels as if it can’t make up its mind whether it is a dystopian nightmare or a real-life farce, and the combination of both elements makes it hard to feel any empathy for either woman.

Sadly, director Nina Brazier can’t find a style that can makes perfect sense of this duality, although she is well-served by her committed cast: Lucinda Holloway’s ditsy Talya, Beatrice Curnew’s intense Raneen and Tim Crowther’s domineering Man. And, despite the disappointing overall impression, some of Grochala’s writing is very good indeed.