put your sweet hand in mine

Ira Brand and Andy Field’s new show gently makes all the stuff that comes with Valentine’s Day seem like total bullshit.

The two performers make us stare at a stranger and take them by the hand. The audience sit opposite each other in two rows, which makes it supremely difficult to avoid the person across from you. It’s that tube situation where you inadvertently catch someone’s eye, smile, or not, and then feel very awkward.

By forcing us to study each other, Brand and Field provoke thought about our neighbours. This is one of the strengths of a piece which at times is a little wandering but is regularly funny while conjuring real beauty and familiarity with its imagery. Field and Brand sit with us, one on each side but not opposite each other.

We’re told that we’re the people at a birdwatching convention in Paris; then that an electrical blackout has occurred; then that suddenly something is going very wrong. ‘Do you have someone?’ shouts Field, urgently, before we’re all compelled to grab someone’s hand and hold it. Each situation contains the first moments of a love story.

It’s the show’s final moments that work best. Lines from romantic films – ‘It’s raining? I hadn’t noticed’ – are blended with elaborate end-of-the-world scenarios that catch us off guard. What love is, why it matters and the human connection are all queried in this 60-minute Valentine’s Day antidote.