★★★☆☆
As a commuter, I know all too well the familiar sounds of a train announcement letting passengers know what platform their train will be departing from. This is how Heisenberg starts. In the intimate spacing of The Arcola Theatre in Dalston, Hackney, the audience goes quiet and sits back as the train announcements of St Pancras station fill the empty stage. Out walks a young woman called Georgie and completely out of nowhere, she kisses the back of the neck of Alex, a 70-year-old lady sat in the station. And so begins their story.
Heisenberg is a cross-generational romantic comedy play by Simon Stephens, the writing genius behind the stage adaptation of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime. It first premiered at Manhattan Theatre Club in New York in 2015 before it made its West End debut at Wyndham’s Theatre in 2017. 10 years since its first premiere, Heisenberg is now back on stage in London, but this time with a difference: Katherine Farmer’s adaptation is a queer reimagining, starring two women.
From the very second that Alex and Georgie enter the stage and begin verbally jousting with one another, the audience are in roars of laughter. These two characters are opposites: Georgie, played by Faline England, is a young, eccentric free spirit who openly speaks her mind. Alex (Jenny Galloway), on the other hand, is reserved and blunt in her one-liners. It’s not the gender you focus on, nor the age difference but rather the chemistry between two women so completely different: the clashing of the chatty versus the deadpan, with audiences on the edge of their seat, wondering how Alex will respond to such an unnerving act from Georgie.
Heisenberg is a very dialogue-focused play, with not much of a story or a plot: for 90 minutes, we follow these two women through numerous conversations where we learn more about each of them. They share stories of childhood, war, family and past loves, with the idea being that through these conversations, you see Alex and Georgie falling in love with each other.
Sadly, I was not convinced by the romance. I wanted so badly to get behind the flirtatious comments. I wanted to root for these two characters, but everything felt surface level. While crisp and fun in dialogue, the conversations never really get deep. Just as you think a character is going to get to something really profound, the actors are out of their seats, moving to the next scene, signaled by flashing lights and pop music. Sadly, the comedic one-liners barely kept me entertained: everything felt very slow-paced and superficial.
Without much of a plot, Heisenberg thus forces the audience to focus on the characters. And they are phenomenal, with Jenny Galloway stealing the show. Galloway’s use of body language and facial expression to show the reservation of Alex is off the charts. As these two characters get to know each other, we see Galloway opening up more, evident through her changing body language. The little dance moves she begins to do as she moves around the stage, the small smiles we see on her face when her back is turned to Georgie to the more intimate wrapping of her legs around Alex, and playing with her hair all signal someone whose slowly becoming more and more comfortable in her relationship with this stranger.
And that’s when it all comes to a fall, as, without giving too much away, Georgie’s relationship with Alex is not as wholesome as it may seem. Georgie has an ulterior motive for meeting Alex. I understand why Heisenberg includes this: every play needs a conflict; every play needs a climax. Unfortunately, this one fell very flat. Before you know it, the conflict is resolved, and everything is back to normal. I would have loved to have seen more fighting between Alex and Georgie. We’ve seen them grow close together but what has this betrayal from Georgie really done to Alex? How does Alex, who’s finally opened up to someone for the first time in a long time, respond to Georgie’s real intentions?
While I was less convinced about the romantic relationships, I did enjoy Heisenberg’s depiction of what you can learn from someone so different to you. At one point, Alex bursts out crying after her and Georgie have had sex, and it’s fair to say, I choked up a little. This act of crying representing the vulnerability and courage of being seen by another person is brilliant. Heisenberg excels at showcasing the dynamics of how one person can make another feel so deeply, forcing them to confront what they have repressed for so long. It forces even the audience to leave the theatre and think about our own lives – are we living the best we can? As Georgie asks Alex “will you be my person”, we’re left to think of our own relationships and what love really can offer.
While I wasn’t fully convinced by the romance and found myself wishing for more from the play, that’s not to say that Heisenberg is not worth going to see: it’s a play that will make you think about the dynamics of relationships between people and the power another person can have over our emotions and behaviours.
Heisenberg runs at Arcola Theatre until May 10th.
Photo: (c) Charlie Flint
JADAR 