Emma Cater’s debut play is set in a Cloakroom at the theatre, where friends Eve (Carolyn Backhouse) and Dee (Nicky Goldie) talk about life, love and loss while they wait for people to collect their coats and scarves. They have matching uniforms and a shorthand from working together for so long.
Co-directed by Cater and Charlotte Peters, and staged at Hen & Chickens Theatre for Camden Fringe, this is one of those plays which is a lot of chat with an underlying tone of drama.
If you eavesdrop on conversations or even join in with them yourselves, you will recognise the minutae and mundane in these chats. The honesty and heartache, too.
Characters, situations, and more take place against Sam Selby’s set of a few hangers, a counter, and a backdrop with double lamps and faded grandeur. Even if we hadn’t been told this was a theatre, we would have recognised it. And I love the background sound design by Sebastian Frost, very atmospheric.
Eve and Dee have contrasting personalities but make a comedic double act on their little stage, the one nobody sees once the main house lights go down.
Cloakroom feels like a loose collection of sketches with its numerous cast of off-stage characters and its different sequences punctuated by a cheery “good evening, do you have your coat?”
Whether the ladies are curious about the clientele or gossiping about their unseen colleagues, they present a united front of gentle and amusing anecdotes.
There isn’t a lot of tension, conflict, or action here – it isn’t that kind of play – save one section which is written and performed beautifully. It is more about giving a nod to the front of house staff who look after our belongings and keep us safe and happy when we are at play.
If I could make any comparison here, I was reminded of the late Victoria Wood’s dinnerladies and the team’s interplay there.
With Backhouse and Goldie having an easy chemistry together, there’s more than a bit of scope for Cloakroom to be expanded out, or alternatively more tightly focused on a tale of two from their conversations.
***.5
For more information on Cloakroom, go the show’s website.