Oh, I Can’t Be Bothered

West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds/Touring 

4/5

RASHDASH’S last production The Ugly Sisters was so forceful and confrontational it was hard to tell if it was the best or worst thing you’d ever seen. 

Abbi Greenland and Helen Goalen’s new show Oh, I Can’t Be Bothered has all the same elements of physical theatre, cabaret and music but this time the intensity has been turned down to seven. 

Written during creative development time, it lacks some of the startling originality of their previous work. Yet it still packs an emotional punch as it explores female friendship and the way in which these dynamics are threatened when a third person becomes involved. 

Meeting at opposite sides of an empty room Dee and Bea, whose suffocating friendship has no room for anyone else, argue in circles about the implications of the latter falling in love with “Him.” “Do you dance together like we do?” asks Dee. “Does your dildo make you feel safe?” blasts back Bea. 

As emotions become charged the pair get more physical as they dance to cheesy pop songs, paint abstract art and press their noses together. Tumbling and colliding as their friendship and inter-dependency is tested, Dee’s microphone is pitch-shifted to sound like Him while Bea coerces her soul mate into wearing matching clothes. 

Full of irrational feelings, twisted logic and unreasonable wants, the characters are disembodied by being shrouded in plastic sheeting and having disco balls cover their faces. There’s a sense of deconstruction as Bea takes phone calls from Him, much to to Dee’s impatience. 

A play to be experienced and felt, rather than analysed, Oh, I Can’t Be Bothered is certainly worth the effort of seeking out.

Tours until November 12, details:
rashdash.co.uk

Susan Darlington