ED2022 3/5 Reviews ED2022 Theatre Reviews

Happy Meal (Roots / Theatre Royal Plymouth With ETT And Oxford Playhouse)

By | Published on Wednesday 24 August 2022

Allie Daniel and Sam Crerar give lovely, detailed performances, developing hesitancy into friendship, until romance blossoms into a happy ending. A cartoonish set, and fun sound design take us back to early-cyberspace via chat-bubbles and dial-up bleeps. It effectively brings to life a play of digital conversations, but the mingling of eras is challenging. Described as a “rom-com where Millennial meets Gen Z” – the piece loses some sense of authenticity by putting Gen Z levels of social-awareness into the mouths of teens communicating via MySpace. Their online-ness liberates the characters, allowing them to construct identities as they see themselves, but means the audience don’t get much sense of their lives, personalities or character development outside their relationship to each other.

Traverse Theatre, until 28 Aug.
tw rating 3/5 | [Bizz Holmes]

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