Skip to content

FringeGuru

 
Blink
Published on Friday, 17 August 2012
3

3 stars

Traverse Theatre (venue website)
Theatre
2 Aug, 5:45pm-6:45pm; 3 Aug, 8:00pm-9:10pm; 4, 10 Aug, 10:30am-11:40am; 5, 11 Aug, 1:00pm-2:10pm; 7 Aug, 3:15pm-4:25pm; 8, 15 Aug, 5:45pm-6:55pm; 9 Aug, 8:00pm-9:00pm; 12, 14 Aug, 3:15pm-4:15pm; 16, 22 Aug, 8:15pm-9:40pm; 17, 23 Aug, 10:30am-11:55am; 18, 24 Aug, 1:00pm-2:25pm; 19 Aug, 3:30pm-4:55pm; 21, 26 Aug, 5:45pm-7:10pm; 25 Aug, 3:15pm-4:40pm
Reviewed by Lynsey Martenstyn

 Recommended for age 12+ only.

Blink is the result of an exciting collaboration between new writing powerhouses Soho Theatre and Nabokov, written by Bruntwood prize-winning Phil Porter. This self-aware, kooky, tragicomedy is sweet – but doesn’t leave a lasting impression.

‘This is a true story. Of how we fell in love’. Blink tells the doomed love story of Jonah and Sophie, two friendless characters from dysfunctional families. Both encounter a small fortune, enabling them to float around East London, completely disengaged with their surroundings and finding solace in each other.

The story is told as a dual monologue, with each character telling the audience their side of the story at intersecting moments. This works well for creating comic effect – occasionally one character believes the other is thinking exacting what they aren’t. However, it also creates a distance between them both. There is not a moment when it feels as if the characters are in love; they are more pushed together by loneliness than any other emotion.  Sophie wants to be noticed and Jonah enjoys compulsively watching people. At one point, Jonah decides to watch a family, and is given a warning of his behaviour by the police; some audience members jovially laughed at this, but it created a dark side to Jonah’s character, which was never fully explored.

More generally, Jonah and Sophie are refreshingly unconventional. They not pleasant characters; they are only deemed likable because of the charming actors who play them, Harry McEntire and Rosie Wyatt, who spend a great deal of the play making eye contact with the audience. Behind the smiles, Sophie is essentially an attention-seeker and Jonah is an obsessive, mildly racist religious fanatic. Audiences will still leave Blink feeling a fondness towards them, and that is a commendation to the flair in which McEntire and Wyatt play their roles.

So Blink is less a love story, more a whimsical tale of two lost souls in London. The play feels clunky at times, especially when other characters step into the play. Jonah and Sophie play some characters; the actors playing Jonah and Sophie play others. Life-changing moments happen to each of the characters within the play, yet these all seem to merge by the end.

I can’t wrap up this review without a mention for the set, designed by Hannah Clark, which is one of the stand-out elements of the play. It features a plush green carpet and a backdrop of a panelled forest scene, with two small desks and two boxes adorning it. Beautifully symmetrical and artificially green, it resonates with the play’s focus on two similarly young, fresh people, who aren't as they appear.

If you’re a fan of inoffensive, indie rom-coms – such as Eagle vs. Shark or Nick and Noah’s Infinite Playlist – which focus on the ‘unconventional’ love stories of a young couple, then you will vastly enjoy Blink. But if you were expecting fireworks from a collaboration between Soho Theatre and Nabokov… well, don’t expect to find them here.

<< Miss Havisham's Expectati...   Wild West End >>

FROM OUR ARCHIVES

These are archived reviews of shows from Edinburgh 2012.  We keep our archives online as a courtesy to performers, and for readers who'd like to research previous years' reviews.

Edinburgh 2012 Five Stars

5 stars Comedy
Totally Tom


5 stars Comedy
The Magical Adventures of Pete Heat


5 stars Theatre
Bye Bye World


5 stars Comedy
Barbershopera: The Three Musketeers


5 stars Comedy
Truth


5 stars Theatre
The House of Shadows


5 stars Cabaret
Briefs


5 stars Theatre
Made for Each Other - Free


5 stars Comedy
Tony Law: Nonsense Overdrive


5 stars Comedy
Ivo Graham and Liam Williams


5 stars Comedy
Hannibal Buress: Still Saying Stuff


5 stars Comedy
The Blanks' Big Break


5 stars Theatre
A Clockwork Orange


5 stars Comedy
Richard Wiseman: Psychobabble


5 stars Comedy
Martin Mor: A Man You Don’t Meet Everyday


5 stars Theatre
1984


5 stars Comedy
Swedenborg, the Devil and Me


5 stars Theatre
The Trench


5 stars Theatre
Casablanca: The Gin Joint Cut


5 stars Theatre
Joyced!


5 stars Theatre
An Evening With Dementia


5 stars Comedy
Scott Agnew: Tales of the Sauna


5 stars Theatre
Comedian Dies in the Middle of Joke


5 stars Comedy
Chris Ramsey: Feeling Lucky


5 stars Comedy
The Horne Section - Live at the Grand!


5 stars Theatre
How to Disappear Completely and Never Be Found


5 stars Theatre
The Life and Sort of Death of Eric Argyle


5 stars Theatre
Songs of Lear


5 stars Cabaret
Jonny Woo: Wonder Woo-Man


5 stars Comedy
Josie Long: Romance and Adventure


5 stars Comedy
10 Films With My Dad


5 stars Theatre
4.48 Psychosis


5 stars Theatre
As You Like It


5 stars Theatre
Appointment With The Wicker Man


5 stars Comedy
Jessie Cave: Bookworm


5 stars Comedy
Morgan & West: Lying, Cheating Scoundrels


5 stars Theatre
Hearts on Fire


5 stars Theatre
Rainbow


5 stars Comedy
Chris Dangerfield: Sex Tourist


5 stars Comedy
Chris McCausland: Not Blind Enough


5 stars Theatre
Chatroom


5 stars Comedy
Peacock & Gamble Don't Even Want To Be On Telly Anyway


5 stars Theatre
I Heart Hamas: And Other Things I'm Afraid to Tell You


5 stars Comedy
John Robertson - The Dark Room - Free


5 stars Kids'
Dr Brown Brown Brown Brown Brown and His Singing Tiger