Written by Bxd Out Theatre and co-directed by Mariam Pope, Maddy Hunter & Lucy Speer, Lips is a complicated bit of theatre showing at Camden Fringe.
We meet Alex (Megan Walls) a little worse for wear in a nightclub toilet. She’s looking for fun, and finds it in Joe (Josh Crook), a nice guy who is just there with his mates to fit in.
After a one-night stand at his place where he offers her a post-tryst cup of tea, they eventually settle into an awkward bur undefined romance, albeit one where Alex is invited over the road to meet Joe’s dad (Felix Badcock).
With many scenes of dialogue underpinned by loud and pulsing techno, Lips leaves us a bit detached from the club scenes. There are snippets of a beer, a confidence, a coupling (‘7 out of 10, always room for improvement’).
Lips is about Alex and her life choices and what she allows to happen to her. Without spoiling, I found some sequences very uncomfortable and borderline misogynistic, although I doubt that was the idea.
Joe and his dad both have baggage from past relationships. With the former it is a persistent and recent ex he still ‘loves and respects’, and for the latter it is the wife he’s been pouring a glass of wine for despite her early death.
The scenes of intimacy are believable and the tiptoeing of new relationships is strongly conveyed. There are no happy endings, either, and you suspect Alex will go away and walk into the same mistakes again.
Lips made me sad, angry, awkward, and pleased I’m past the age of young love and casual hook-ups. No one is at fault here, which I suppose is why the story is cleverly constructed and performed.
All three actors are excellent. Walls gives Alex a dangerous naivety and vulnerability, Crook allows his Mr Nice Guy’ to have more than a blemish on his character, and Badcock captures a lonely, yearning grief.
I liked the moments of detail giving a sense of each space and location we see. Music was of primary importance at different times for different reasons, although I’d dial the club sound down just a little.
Maybe Lips is about taking a chance even if you’re better off alone. It doesn’t preach, and it doesn’t praise. I found it an extremely effective play, whatever any individual audience member may make of it.
****
Lips has finished its run at the Camden Fringe. For more on Bxd Out Theatre visit their Insragram page.