Some Girl(s) at Park Theatre

Tucked away behind Finsbury Park Station, Park Theatre – a veritable embryo when it comes to the London theatre scene, having been up and running for only three years – is the kind of venue that was made to make theatre for today. You won’t find much Olivier here, but it is a corking place for some of the hot new stuff in London drama.

Neil LaBute’s Some Girl(s) tells the story of Guy, an ordinary sort of man, as he is about to get married. However, before he can do so, he has decided that he will visit his four ex-girlfriends in order to right the wrongs of past relationships, and finally be at peace with himself. Suffice to say, his exes have other ideas.

Directed by Gary Condes and produced by the Buckland Theatre Co, the play is at once alive with the immediacy of its subject; this is a work that pokes almost scientifically at the modern relationship, and how men behave – often badly – and how women put up with it. LaBute has an excellent knack for hitting the sexes bang on. There is no artificial balancing here, Guy is neither a good man nor a bad man, he is just a man with so many foibles, whilst all four females are played with fullness of emotion; stereotypes are discarded at the door.

The set design is gorgeously simple, and the scenes are interspersed with cityscapes of the areas Guy visits, played from a projector and backed by a 00s indie soundtrack. Charlie Dorfman gives a stellar performance as Guy, never letting up throughout two hours of stage time, successfully delivering LaBute’s pitch-perfect lines and cracking all the jokes.

The play manages to offer up enough questions about the male and female psyches without getting lost, even if the final scenes reach too quickly for a climax, when it might have been better to just let it finish naturally – after all, it has plenty to offer. Some Girl(s) successfully shines the spotlight not only on what it is to be a man and a woman, but on what it is to be human and in love. Not to be missed.

Stuart McMillan

Some Girl(s) is on at Park Theatre from 14^th July until 6^th August, for further information or to book visit here.

Watch a promotional video with the cast here: