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This review was of the show's Edinburgh run. It arrives in London from November 24.
Couples, communication and going the distance after the first flush of love has faded would seem to be big themes at this year’s Fringe. And if that sounds mundane then disabuse yourself via this startling first show from young company Walrus and writer Sam Steiner.
It’s about a couple, coping with usual shit: Oliver (Euan Kitson) is right-on, political, pedantic and rather full of himself; Bernadette (Beth Holmes) doesn’t do politics and is kookier, warmer, but also prickly and given to abruptly change the topic if she doesn’t like a conversation. They bicker, they argue.
But in the background something odd is rumbling: a bill passes through parliament, forbidding people from speaking more than 140 words a day. The couple soon begin making up their own contractions, codes and shorthand, further limited by how much they spoke at work that day. They find new ways to bicker and argue.
‘Lemons, Lemons, Lemons, Lemons, Lemons’ is about a lot of things. Mostly, I think, is the difficulty in maintaining one’s sense of self in a relationship while trying to find a shared language. But it’s also a political work: obviously this exact scenario is absurd (and certainly wouldn’t be enforceable). But Walrus are from a generation whose future is being threatened by politicians following policies almost as ridiculous. And by-the-by the 140-word limit is presumably a not towards Twitter’s 140-character blunting of discourse. Finally, it’s a beautiful play about the beauty and preciousness of language: it’s most exhilarating bits are when Oliver and Bernadette find they have words to burn at the end of the day, and just let fly, heedlessly.
Ed Franklin’s production is a touch bitty and static, and there’s room for refinement here. But I don’t even want to think about how young this company is – ‘Lemons, Lemons, Lemons, Lemons, Lemons’ is about as promising as debuts get.