Review: EGGS AREN'T THAT EASY TO MAKE at Riverside Studios

Miriam Gibson 3 April, 2026, 15:44

Maria Telnikoff’s play is a story of same-sex parenting, with just enough charm to cover up its unevenness. Rachel Andrews and Tom Kingman star as Claire and Daniel, two best mates who we first meet dancing the Macarena at a university party. The engaging first ten minutes of Eggs Aren't That Easy to Make zips through the next decade as the pair graduate, move to London, get and lose jobs, and each meet a girlfriend to settle down with. When Claire and her girlfriend Lou (Esther Carr) decide to have a baby, Daniel is keen to be the sperm donor. The main plot of Eggs... follows them over the next few months, as the two couples iron out the kinks of this arrangement.

Rachel Andrews and Esther Carr in EGGS AREN'T THAT EASY TO MAKE. Photo by Fabiano Waters.

Andrews and Carr are warm and natural, and the inherent hints in the writing about their careers and hobbies makes them feel like real people. Meanwhile, a miscast Kingman gives a one-note performance, with Daniel rarely straying from merely Comedic Relief Character, even in the play’s more emotional moments. As Daniel’s girlfriend Naomi, Sophia Rosen-Fouladi has the least interesting character of the four leads, but she doubles up as a hippy-dippy birthing-class instructor, playing this character to very amusing effect.

Director Lauren Tranter ensures that Eggs... has a strong energy. Tranter also introduces fun stage effects, especially when illustrating the passing of time and the changing of place. The script is funny and winning with many laugh-out-loud moments. Telnikoff deploys running gags well, and avoids the obvious crass jokes which might be expected in a play about sperm donation. The plot’s low stakes don’t make the story any less interesting. At seventy-five minutes, Eggs... never outstays its welcome, although the script loses its way towards the end, with Telnikoff appearing unsure how to conclude the story. Although finishing with a birth would have been cliché, it was puzzling that Telnikoff instead chose to end a story about becoming a parent with neither a pregnancy or a baby. The time-jumps at the beginning of the play work well, but the flashback in the final scene seemed out-of-place. The temporality of the piece was also unclear - Daniel and Claire for example seem to be at uni in the 90s, but a decade later they’re referencing Strava and Hinge.

Despite these flaws, the humour and warmth of the play and the convincing performances of Andrews and Carr mean that Eggs Aren't That Easy to Make is a very easy-to-enjoy evening of entertainment.