The Bread & Roses Theatre – until 18 November. Reviewed by Claire Roderick
3***
To mark their third anniversary, The Bread & Roses Theatre present the winner of their playwriting award 2017, The Black Eye Club by Phil Charles. This is Charles’ first stage play, having written for TV and film.
Set in a women’s refuge, the three hander is about Zoe, who comes to the refuge regularly to temporarily escape from her husband, who allows Dave, a gay man who’s left his abusive partner, to stay in her room overnight. Security guard Sharon is suspicious of the noise she hears and constantly interrupts the pair as they gradually open up and share the stories of their troubled relationships.
Dave (Christopher Sherwood) is a stereotypical posh repressed bloke, leaving Sherwood little room for anything other than stiff but endearing awkwardness to play with, while Rebecca Pryle as Zoe does her usual fine job of portraying the damage beneath a lairy and flippant exterior. Cathryn Sherman as Sharon just has to look forbidding and inept, but gets to let rip in great style in the final scene.
Billed as a black comedy, The Black Eye Club has some great lines, but many fall flat. The trouble is, it’s not THAT dark. Phil Charles uses Zoe to voice cliched and ignorant responses about gay relationships that are sadly still widely used. Tackling the issue of domestic abuse in a same sex relationship, there is a touching scene where Dave tells Zoe about the police officer’s facetious response to his complaints about his partner, and the lack of help for men in need of beds is also touched upon. That’s my main issue with the play – Charles could have taken things further, exploring Dave’s situation in more depth rather than following the “Odd Couple” route. Don’t get me wrong – the story satisfies as a feel-good story about domestic abuse with an upbeat ending (the gay couple sitting with me thought it was “lovely”) – but with some further work, could possibly become a truly black comedy with an important message.