The Richard Burton Company -  Relationshit

By Charlie Hammond

At RWCMD, Wednesday 24^th July, 2013.

Devised by RWCMD actor Rehanna MacDonald, who also played the main protagonist of the piece, Relationshit plays out as a snapshot of a Glaswegian girl’s relationship with a middle-class hipster who wants to be admired for his fight-the-man, environmentalist attitude whilst drinking and travelling his money away, and a tough South London girl brimming with sexuality.

MacDonald’s script shows a lot of promise. The dialogue is sharp and down to earth, and the show as a whole is well-paced. The characterization is pretty much spot on: the three characters are full of biased opinions and the sort of little contradictions that make them seem very faulty and real.

But in the end, nothing really happens. Not really. And that is not necessarily a negative thing for the piece if it does aim to be a glimpse into a moment. The play sets up issues of sexual identity, with the scenes quickly passing from the protagonist interacting with her ex-boyfriend to the protagonist and her ex-lover. But there is a lack of tension: the tone is relatively relaxed and playful, and whilst initially this creates an engaging atmosphere the piece needed to progress elsewhere. There is a sense of the conflict, but, on the whole, the play compartmentalizes the heterosexual and the homosexual relationships; Macdonald flips with disorientating ease between the two, and whilst this makes her an interesting character to watch, there was little struggle in her journey.

Charlie Hiett as the ex-boyfriend moves from being a sop to an irritating sentimentalist to someone just trying to find their place in the world, and his outburst that questions having to work just to get more money to spend on more booze to deal with more work feels genuine and compelling. His performance is full of playful energy that helps to contrast the sharper nature of the other two characters, bringing a nice balance to the show.

Tessie Orange Turner’s South London girl hovers in an interesting position in the play: there is a subtle power play between her and Macdonald that we don’t see enough of, both displaying a self-assured and independent attitude. Indeed, both characters are too relaxed about the collapse of their relationship, and in comparison to the conflict with the ex-boyfriend there is not enough of a pull between these two characters.

The production had a fragmented style, which worked for it to an extent, but this didn’t feel entirely appropriate for the content. In the pre-show the three characters ambled about onstage, Macdonald eating a pot-noodle whilst the other two drank lager and generally tried to look cool. The more naturalistic scenes were broken up by various devices: the characters sang snippets of songs into the microphones at the front of the stage, spoke short monologues, and engaged in phone conversations with each other. These interactions began to bring the three characters together, but the end of the piece still felt fragmented, and although this may have been the intention, it didn’t quite bring itself to any sort of conclusion or leave the audience with any impulse to question the events.

The stage and lighting were kept pretty bare: a stepladder was kept to one side with a computer chair and a guitar at the back, as well as the three microphones at the front of the stage. All in all it had a bit of a sporadic feel, less of a designed choice and more just there for function. However, the empty space did keep the attention on the performers and the details of the story itself, even if this wasn’t perhaps economized to its best use.

Ultimately, there is not enough conflict in this piece to give it as sense of justification for its subject. Although there is some overlap in these relationships, specifically when all three step up to the microphones at the front of the stage for interwoven dialogue, there is never a climax to the piece. For a play looking for what happens when the sex dries up in not one, but two relationships, there needed to be a meeting of both, a crisis point where the protagonist breaks: who is she really in relation to both of these people?

Relationshit plays at Venue 13 at the Edinburgh Fringe festival from 10^th to the 17^th August, (not on the 12^th), 11.45am.

Edinburgh info: http://www.venue13.com/production/relationshit/

Company info: http://www.rwcmd.ac.uk/courses/ba_acting/richard_burton_company.aspx