A tense, intimate window into a modern, dysfunctional relationship
Casserole is the first in-house production by theatre Company Actors East. Written by Kate Kelly Flood, James Alexandrou (also the Director), and Dom Morgan. Starring Flood and Alexandrou as Kate and Dom, a couple in a dysfunctional relationship living together somewhere in London.
Upon entering the theatre prior to the show commencing, we’re greeted with a meticulously designed set of total chaos; a kitchen/lounge/bedroom strewn with cans of Red Stripe, pizza boxes, and dirty plates that looked as though it had played host to a party the night before. Alexandrou’s character is already present on the set as the audience filter into the room, wallowing in the filth he’s created, occasionally moving to smoke or put food in the microwave – doing an excellent job of giving us some prior context into the emotional state his character is in. Credit to set designers Paulina Camacho and Paul Weedle for creating such a beautiful, disgusting mess.
Casserole takes place over one evening, in Kate and Dom’s flat. The plot centres around the culmination of their failures at processing their own problems. These problems drive a wedge in their relationship that reaches boiling point on the night we’re with them. Kate is grieving the recent loss of her mother, suffering panic attacks in public, and Dom is unemployed, lost without a place in the world, evidently finding it to look after himself.
Because of this, Casserole is fraught with tension. The script is a near constant stream of sadness, snark, shouting, and the occasional blunt insult. It carries well in the lower tempo moments. In exchanges where the pace picks up, the script suddenly feels a bit bloated, with the characters repeating words of confusion or dismay at each other rather than communicating properly, which feels unrealistic.
For the most part, Flood and Alexandrou played their parts well. Alexandrou did a good job showing Dom as deflated, foolish, maybe even ignorant, but not quite malicious. Though at the points where conflict was coming to a head, Alexandrou played Dom perhaps with a little too much rage and not quite enough anguish or despair. Flood begins by playing Kate as cold, and a little unkind, but does well to convey the slow unravelling of vulnerability from the grief that Kate is feeling at the loss of a parent. At the end, you’re left pitying both characters, as the closing minutes of the performance involve both characters physically tidying up the big mess that they’ve found themselves with, not saying a word to each other, finally. A poignant closure that felt right, in its ambiguity.