Review: STAGE KISS at Hampstead Theatre

Two nameless ex-lovers are cast in a poorly written revival of a flop play with eerie parallels to their own love story, in which a dying married woman reconnects with her old sweetheart and begins a passionate but short-lived affair. When their bumbling but well-meaning director casts them in a second, equally cringeworthy play, the two actors find themselves confronted with the ugly truths about their relationship.

The premise is delightful, and Ruhl clearly has a lot of fun with the two terribly-written plays-within-a-play. From rehearsals to opening night, we watch the actors fumble their way through awkward blocking, questionable line choices, and impromptu musical numbers, under the eye of a wishy-washy director who insists that the tone of this comically tragic play is intended to be “slippery”. It’s these sequences that got the most laughs, with a sense of comedy that pokes fun at theatre practice and satirises a tradition of overly melodramatic playwriting that takes itself too seriously.

MyAnna Buring and Patrick Kennedy do most of the heavy-lifting with their sparkling chemistry and witty rapport, and performances that feel so richly realised and vivid that I didn’t realise until after the curtain fell that we’d never been told their names - the script refers to them simply as She and He. Whether they’re reminiscing about old times or debating whether it’s awkward watching actors have sex onstage, they feel utterly believable as a pair of ex-lovers who’ve had to kiss each other onstage so many times that it’s revived the spark of their tired old romance. Rolf Saxon is equally charming and hilarious as the hapless director, trying desperately to breathe life into a tired old production, shying away from giving notes to his actors and scratching out the stage directions from the script.

But beyond the comedy and the cast’s chemistry, Stage Kiss lacks a real sense of substance, and the storytelling falls apart slightly by the second act, which feels almost unnecessary in comparison to the tighter-paced first act. The second play-within-a-play - while undoubtedly hilarious; He sports an IRA uniform and awful Irish accent, while She plays a stereotypical Brooklyn hooker - feels like a rehashing of the same jokes from the first one. Attempts to inject poignancy and depth into the story, with She’s relationship with her abandoned husband and teenage daughter, fall as flat as the exaggerated sentimentality of the plays-within-the-play.

One wonders if Stage Kiss might have worked better had it leaned more confidently into its satirical elements, which is where it shines. Running at two hours and ten minutes, it sometimes feels overly long and at other times bloated by poor pacing. That being said, the humour had me laughing almost throughout and Buring and Kennedy’s chemistry was strong enough to keep it charming rather than trite.

Stage Kiss Tickets