WHAT IF THEY ATE THE BABY?

Soho Theatre

★★★★★

“The clever dialogue is Pinteresque, full of ambiguity, uncertainty and with an unsettling sense of threat”

New York-based artists, Xhloe Rice and Natasha Roland reprise their Edinburgh Fringe First Award-winning show from 2023 and from this first London performance, that win was well deserved. Because this show is simply sixty minutes of onstage perfection – sassy, snappy and sexy. Described as a “radical, queer dystopia”, the two dynamic co-writers and performers play two 1950’s American housewives, near neighbours in a suspicious American suburb where everyone is peeking through the curtains.

The neon colours of the simple set – blue wooden chairs around a central table and a salmon pink window frame set at a jaunty angle – shine out in the intimate black box theatre space (Lighting Designer, Angelo Sagnelli). Shirley (Natasha Roland) is scrubbing the black and white chequerboard flooring whilst a spaghetti lunch is cooking in the oven. There comes a knock on the door which Shirley is scared to open, but it is only Dotty (Xhloe Rice) from down the road who, ostensibly, has come to return a casserole dish. A power struggle ensues between the two on who gets to hold the dish. The two ladies are dressed in near identical frocks: Shirley in yellow, Dotty in pink – doll-like in appearance, red circles painted on their cheeks, a parody of the stereotypical post-war American housewife. Their conversation is a delightful exaggeration of the banalities of polite intercourse, the couple mirroring each other both in words and actions.

Then strange things begin to happen. We see the same repeated scene over and over, with subtle changes so that we mistrust what we understood was happening. The straight scenes are interpolated with pseudo-dance pieces, movement to music – electronica, techno and rap – out of period with the previous tone. Scenes first interpreted as Shirley’s lesbian fantasies appear to be something more significant after all and as the couple whisper to each other amidst the rave, it appears this is the only safe time for them to truly communicate.

The precise dance steps of the two actors in these scenes, perfect in their synchronicity, are a joy to watch and the pair provide a masterclass in mirroring.

The clever dialogue is Pinteresque, full of ambiguity, uncertainty and with an unsettling sense of threat. Why is Shirley so scared of repeated knocks on the door? What is making the footstep noises from upstairs? Just how much time does Dotty spend in Shirley’s house? What is the mystery of Mrs Nobokov across the road who may have been “taken in”? Each set of dialogue raises more questions until we are ultimately led (should have seen it coming…) to the final question that is the title of the play. Leaving the theatre, there are no obvious answers but much to think on about living in a surveillance society.

Tag Archives: Xhloe Rice

WHAT IF THEY ATE THE BABY?

★★★★★

Soho Theatre

WHAT IF THEY ATE THE BABY?

Soho Theatre

★★★★★

“The clever dialogue is Pinteresque, full of ambiguity, uncertainty and with an unsettling sense of threat”