The Falcon

When dancer Emina (Alex Topham Tyerman) first shimmies up to seduce Alphonse (Tom Warner), the young farmer/soldier/musician is too busy blowing his own trumpet (literally) to notice. She soon captures his attention, though, and the pair get down to exchanging pleasantries, proverbs and fables, much of it expressed in terms of cows, goats and rabbits.
It's rare to see a new play as untouched by contemporary theatrical fashion as physicist-playwright David Klempner's stage debut, essentially a romantic dialogue between representatives of innocence and experience.

Structurally it's deeply unsound: a third character is wastefully introduced with about ten minutes to go. The actors contribute graceful turns in John Savournin's production, and there's some sensuous blowing from live musical accompanists Anthony Aarons (trumpet) and Melanie Henry (saxophone), who perform compositions by David Sutton Anderson. But without a touch more writerly guile, the script's occasionally winning simplicity is in danger of appearing merely naÔve.