Stage: Down the rabbit hole

The Gift
by Dave Florez
director Adam Meggido
with Nicholas Burns, Laura Haddock, Alex Price
design Sarah Perks • lighting David Howe
music & sound Abby Galvin
Park Theatre, Finsbury Park • 22.Jan-1.Mar.25 ★★★

Springing from a high-concept premise then spinning wildly out of control, this snappy black comedy is written in such an entertaining way that we barely realise that it's playing with big issues rather than actually grappling with them. Dave Florez has a wonderful way with dialog, injecting witty banter that livens up a series of raucously uncomfortable moments. The steady stream of jokey puns and acerbic observations often feels overwritten, but it's also very funny, as it's essentially a portrait of three people who use wit to obscure what they really think.

It opens on a spotlit cake box on a kitchen counter, which Colin (Nicholas Burns) received that morning. Now he's joined by his sister Lisa (Laura Haddock) and brother-in-law Brian (Alex Price), peering at the human excrement inside and wondering who could have possibly sent it. Lisa knows that Colin is unlikely to take this with a grain of salt, and sure enough he begins obsessing about both who and why. Laura and Brian make a joke of it, and try everything they can to calm him down, but their own relational issues come into play as the situation grows into an existential crisis for all three of them.

Set completely in Colin's living room over several months, the play's dialog brims with pointed zingers as these people find amusing ways to refer to this head-scratching predicament as it escalates exponentially. The actors' dive in fully, making each of these characters big personalities who are equally likeable and infuriating. At the centre, Burns gives Colin a nicely quirky observational sensibility that leads him down all kinds of rabbit holes, overwhelmed by the task of apologising to every person he may have wronged. There are elements of panic and confusion that are easy to identify with, and these of course set off alarm bells for Haddock's pragmatic Lisa and Price's jocular Brian, who is perhaps too quick with a wisecrack for everything.

Indeed, there's a relentless intensity to this play, with such a continuous flow of spiky humour that the characters and situations begin to feel artificial. It's thoroughly enjoyable to watch, simply because the spiralling conversations are so jam-packed with fizzy wordplay, although this means that we are hearing people tell hilarious stories rather than watching events unfold on-stage. And many of the deeper issues, such as the machismo swirling between Colin and Brian, are brushed off as silly rather than properly explored. 

Much more interesting are the little rifts that reveal themselves between the characters, within marriage, friendships and between siblings. And Colin's inability to just get on with his life is also fascinating. These are by far the most involving things about this play, even as it remains focussed on its central gag and final punchline. 

For info, PARK THEATRE >

photos by Rich Southgate • 18.Jan.25