Theatre review: Lobster, Underbelly, Bristo Square
Lobster, Underbelly, Bristo Square, * * *
Is there anyone out there who really loves online dating? From Gemma Harvey’s one-woman show, based upon real-life experiences she’s gathered, you can probably see why the answer might be “no”.
Harvey plays Polly who, with a sunny smile and a polka dot dress that says ‘I love children’, rattles through an eclectic mix of men, following a breakup with her ‘lobster’ – a man she believed she would be with for the rest of her life.
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Hide AdDating apps have become a new way of mapping the city, it is revealed through Polly’s journey across London. Basically, go to Bumble for ‘boring girls’ and Islington for sex.
Elsewhere, the piece is more a series of amusing observations than massive revelations: a familiar story of a woman seeking The One in a sea of swiped images, who instead ends up crying on her bed. However, “just because I want to find love does not make me a shit feminist,”
Polly says, and there’s a subtle defiance that underpins her on-stage journey and (as we learn at the end) Harvey’s off-stage one, as both women try to find a partner in a world that can seem to favour cold, aggressive sex over romance and something more human.
SALLY STOTT
Until 26 August