The Business of Love, The Hope Theatre Review

★ ★ ★ ★ .5

Reviewer - Russell

*Disclaimer: Gifted tickets in return for an honest review

A fun-packed, sweet, funny, silly new play that deserves, and I'm sure will get, a longer run than the two nights it's on at the Hope Theatre in Islington.

The majority of the audience were women in their twenties and early thirties which connected immediately with the well-observed struggles of being a woman rapidly approaching thirty. There were also, a few reluctant boyfriends that had been dragged along, but within ten minutes, everyone in the room was laughing, out loud, a lot. Talk about finding your target audience!

I'll attempt to explain the plot but really this is about the writing, the big laughs, and the love in the room for the 5 main characters..

It's about female friendship and support and sisterhood and independence and loyalty. It's about the 'pressure' society puts on women to be married and settled down and have babies, and yes, we all know that this is changing, but for the young girls in this play, the change is glacial.

At times in the first half, the packed room is in uproar. Some really lovely raw comedy moments. And some really superb comedy performances.

Written by and starring Amy Nic, who plays Kelly, a woman rapidly approaching thirty and employed by an 'agency' called the Business of Love. Her four colleagues/ best friends are employed in finding her a boyfriend or they will all lose their jobs. Yes, it's silly, but it's a metaphor for life in the real world for women rapidly approaching their landmark third decade and is still (Gasp!) single!

My only criticism is that it's a bit long at 1 hour 45 minutes+. And the second half is more serious than the first, but I think it's deliberately this long to display the quality of the writing and the potential for this to go onto much bigger and better things. Certainly off West-end, but this could also easily become a sitcom, with the instantly recognisable relationships and tensions between the four beautifully acted, original, loveable female characters. British TV is screaming out for, a raw original funny, and realistic all-girl sitcom, and this is the show it's waiting for.

It's been a very long time since a female comedy shook up the tedium of male-dominated British comedy.

There are moments of pure joy in the room as each character becomes real in their own right and the brief interactions with the audience are handled expertly.

Also, as this was the first night, the few technical errors and tables collapsing or notice boards falling over were seized upon and turned into the biggest laughs of the night by the highly skilled and naturally funny girls.

Is it sophisticated...nah.

Is it funny...oh yeah

Is it well written...undoubtedly

Is there a spark of an altogether much bigger project... definitely.

Do we need to see more of it....yes please.

We're not talking about the landmark "Fleabag" here, but not every show written by a female has to imitate that level of success, or needs to be that good.

How about a show that's fun?

Oh and it's no 'Miranda' either, these girls are rude, raw, and dirtier than a tramp's underpants.

It's more along the lines of Roisin Conaty's superb 'Gameface' or Rose Matafeos's 'Starstruck'.

Yes it's got a message And the message is; enjoy yourselves girls, laugh, shag, shout, squeal, dance, sing, party, and fall in love while you can, be yourself and oh, don't settle for second best, and don't let old-fashioned patriarchal values and rules get in the way.