An enjoyable tragic comedy dealing with the melodrama of the everyday lives of young Londoners.
Eigengrau, written by Penelope Skinner, first staged in 2010 at the Bush theatre makes another appearance at Putney Arts Theatre as 2025 begins. Eigengrau (ay-gen-grau) is the shade of grey seen when your eyes are closed.
It’s a comedy concerned with the tragic lives of four Londoners living with the problems of boys who don’t text back, looking for a job, bemoaning rent and lying to each other.
Eigengrau opens with a compelling drum beat as the audience watches Cassie, the feminist activist, struggling to write a speech. Using the projection screen behind her as the computer screen is a great way to show this, but later in the show as the screen is used again to show little interludes in everyone’s lives falls slightly on the clunky side.
Cassie, played by Sophia Pettit (who brilliantly captures the awkward passion of futility balanced against the mistakes she’s fated to make) is flatmates with Rose, the slightly insane, delusional woman who believes in whimsy and fairies and astrology. Phoebe Jones gives her a complexity that helps with the heart of the show.
Rose is in love with Mark who’s into marketing and constantly gaslighting everyone around him. Niall O’Mara who plays him does a great job. His flatmate, Tim, who’s dealing with the death of his nan and looking for a job is played by Finn Elliot and gives Tim a heartful performance full of emotion and honesty.
This is the dream child of Tate Jackson and Rex Elliot, who, as well as directing, are the set designers and costumers. There’s a few outdated references, Gumtree is almost non-existent these days, but this is tempered by some very relevant costuming. The “Kenough” shirt was a great comedic choice.
Jackson again is behind the sound design, and the live drumming by Dylan Sweet is a joy to hear whenever he’s used. It’s also behind a lot of the reminders we’re in London, most of the transitions of scenes are interspersed with “Mind the Gap” or the like.
Overall, the cast all do really well with balancing the hilarious comedy of the show with the deeper emotional moments and character beats. No one is completely lovable, this is more the kind of story where you’re invested in seeing what goes wrong next. Sometimes plot points felt a little contrived but the performances more than make up for it. There’s a lot of support and love in this production and it creates an enjoyable evening.
Eigengrau ran at the Putney Arts Theatre on the 3rd and 4th Jan 2025.