After Liverpool

After Liverpool by James Saunders is made up of a sequence of encounters between two characters. A series of different couples move through the social rituals of courtship and mating – and wondering what on earth to do afterwards. A row of six chairs, and a table with a single symbolic apple provide the setting for this caustic study of the repetitions and inanities that attend the making and breaking of modern relationships.

The cast of six twenty-somethings attack these miniature dramas with an energy, commitment and wit that goes a long way towards making some familiar scenarios feel fresh. Michael Armstrong does a nice, self-mocking line in baby-faced egomaniacs. Alix Dunmore is a maddeningly composed alpha-female, whose unflappable air of superiority drives her partners to despair. And Conor Short does laid-back Celtic charm interspersed with flashes of real darkness.

Director Stuart Hurford handles the material with precision and a sharp eye for the absurdities and embarrassments of social (and sexual) intercourse. However, no amount of clever direction can make this slight slice-of-life drama into more than a temporarily engaging show. After Liverpool was first performed in the 1970s, and this provenance perhaps explains why the relationships depicted seem to fall into a pretty narrow groove of social and sexual types. Men desire women, women desire men, they fall into the sack together, and then tumble depressingly towards old-fashioned gender stereotypes.

The company does its damndest to wring every possible variation and nuance out of Saunders’ text, but one of the dangers of a play about futility and repetition is that the point tends to get made pretty quickly. Then there’s very little for an audience to do except sit and sympathise and watch a bunch of highly talented performers play an elaborate game of musical chairs. The result is often extremely entertaining, provoking much recognition and rueful laughter from the show’s appreciative audience, but the parade of emotional inadequacies on display doesn’t require much mental or emotional engagement.

Essentially, After Liverpool is a fast-paced, funny, not-too-challenging way to spend an hour in the theatre. Not really my cup of tea. But if it’s yours, then you’d struggle to find a slicker or more accomplished example of the genre.