If 2017’s Beginning, the first play in David Eldridge’s relationships triptych, was about the sparky sexual attraction when two singles first meet, its follow-up Middle is more about the stifling ennui of marital life. As in Beginning, it’s still the early hours of the morning and we’re once again in a kitchen, but this time it’s stress preventing Maggie (Claire Rushbrook) from sleeping. No bold statements of lust are made – at least not by her. Instead, she tells husband Gary (Daniel Ryan) that she doesn’t love him anymore, and that she hasn’t wanted to have sex with him for a long time. Ouch.
As a couple who have never expressed their boredom and loneliness, Rushbrook and Ryan give wonderfully nuanced performances, as they slowly peel back the layers to reveal deep-rooted pain and resentment. There’s a constant lump in Rushbrook’s throat, her voice always two words away from breaking down completely. But she is the one making the decision: he’d accepted a life of “plodding along”. In times of upset, he sheaths himself in a carapace of “lad bants” and cheesy cliches. Yet Ryan’s performance posits Gary as the more vulnerable of the pair. “Don’t I have feelings? Or am I just a geezer?” he pleads without his voice wavering, the My Little Ponys that surround him only highlighting the futility of his situation
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