I Can’t Hear You
Theatre503
Reviewed – 5th July 2022
★★★★
“a perfect example of how vital new writing is”
“I can’t deal with being your dirty secret.”
This is a play about love, but really, it’s about how love isn’t enough. We meet Ash and Lucy, both at the beginning and end of their relationship, flashing between the two, waiting for one to inevitably explain the other. Ultimately, despite having a genuine affection and care for one another, these two are doomed. The homophobia amongst which we’ve all grown up is not something you can simply shirk off; it’s toxic and invasive, getting in your head, making you afraid. Ruining relationships. Keeping you lonely.
Zoë Birkbeck and Lydia Cashman have a sincere chemistry which seems to grow organically on stage as their relationship progresses, all the way from awkwardly friendly to intensely intimate. The dialogue is warm and engaging, full of quippy back-and-forths, and writer Natasha Brotherdale Smith does well to flesh out these characters in only an hour.
Staging is non-existent really, barring a large metal chest full of props, but it turns out that’s all that’s needed for such an intensely character-based narrative.
In the past few years, Theatre503 has become the gold standard for pub theatre, and new writing to boot. It turns out, you don’t have to trawl out the same ten famous playwrights over and again to make a hit. I Can’t Hear you is a perfect example of how vital new writing is, bringing further nuance and empathy to the LGBTQ+ experience, along with plenty of wit and charm.
Reviewed by Miriam Sallon
I Can’t Hear You
Theatre503 until 7th July
Previously reviewed at this venue:
Til Death do us Part | ★★★★★ | May 2022
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