How Long Do You Think It’s Going To Take?, Barons Court Theatre Review

Written by Bronagh for Theatre & Tonic

Disclaimer: Gifted tickets in exchange for an honest review.

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How Long Do You Think It’s Going to Take? is a new show brought to us by writers Cova Camblor and Alessandro De Cominato and director Anca Vaida. The team have collaborated to create the comedy, exploring relationships and even zombies taking over! We venture into three parallel universes and are left to wonder… how long is it going to take?

Camblor and De Cominato both wrote and star in How Long Do You Think It’s Going to Take? We meet them in the first universe, where we are at the funeral of their beloved dog Alfie. Emotions are high already, portrayed excellently by Camblor especially. De Cominato is great at the more comical delivery. We go through a multitude of emotions, from grief to anger, tragedy to infatuation all in the space of just over an hour. My personal favourite parallel universe – and I believe a lot of the audience members’ after speaking to them – is where they are transformed into dogs. We get the full transformation, from wiggling bottoms and panting in some great direction by Vaida. This was a definite audience pleaser. 

Having seen plays directed by Vaida before, I know that she doesn’t use complete blackouts for scene changes instead using a change of lighting and movement. How Long Do You Think It’s Going to Take? was no exception. As we travelled between the parallel universes, we saw Camblor and De Cominato dance, twist and turn and, in another favourite moment, clown about. The music used during these transitions also made for an enjoyable listen. This is such a nice change to your typical black outs, and I really enjoyed it. There were occasions during the transitions where we heard news announcements, including a very funny take on one of the UK’s previous Prime Ministers. This was laugh out loud funny, with seemingly everybody in the audience finding this funny.

As mentioned, Camblor and De Cominato also wrote How Long Do You Think It’s Going to Take? as well as acted in it. I really enjoyed the script, the conversations being realistic under the circumstances - even the ones between two dogs being exactly how I imagine two exciting dogs to speak to each other! The whole show flows really well with the script, acting and direction all complimenting each other marvellously.

One thing I should mention is that it took me a little while to realise that the show was about parallel universes. I say a little while, we’re talking about ten minutes. I was a little bit like ‘…what is going on’. Once I realised, everything clicked into place and the show was actually super easy to follow. This is personal to me, and I will say the synopsis on the Barons Court Theatre website does mention this – I just didn’t read it beforehand.

Overall, How Long Do You Think It’s Going to Take? is an extremely enjoyable show made possible by some very talented creatives who know how to create a crowd pleasing show. This is one to try and see if you can before the last show on the 6th July – you will not be disappointed!

At Barons Court Theatre until 6th July 2024.

★ ★ ★ ★