Romance and tenderness collide with something far more sinister in multi-award nominated playwright Isley Lynn’s multigenerational tale of queer love and deception. When chaotic, free-spirited old friend Flo (Jessica Clark) turns up and disrupts the soon-to-be-marital bliss of young couple Annie (Saroja-Lily Ratnavel) and Bel (Ruby Crepin-Glyne), her arrival has the somewhat disastrous effect of tugging a loose thread on a woollen jumper: everything quickly begins to unravel.
The Orange Tree’s in-the-round stage setup has been fashioned here into a raised, marble-like platform used to good effect – characters have boxing-ring style face-offs or frolic after one another flirtatiously. The six-strong cast remain in the auditorium throughout; if not playing a scene, they’re at the sidelines providing a tantalising vocal score (sound design by the prolific Nicola T. Chang) characterised by rich, haunting harmonies that, well, swell, conjuring the gently acknowledged ocean-side location of the play’s world.
