Ably directed by Joe Lichtenstein, and featuring two beautifully poised performances, Beginning is a wonderful, warm and witty play.  It is a two-hander that takes place in real time, portraying over the course of 100 minutes an encounter between an apparently mismatched couple.  Boy meets girl, and seduction is the plan, but here the protagonists are around 40, and it is the woman who is the would-be seducer. The scene is the aftermath of a house-warming party in Laura’s flat, with cans, bottles and half-finished food scattered everywhere.  All the guests have gone, except for Danny, who seems undecided about whether or not to stay.  We learn that he was brought along by a workmate, who both he and Laura adjudge to be a ‘sexist, patronising dick.’ They may be in agreement on that point, but in other ways they are poles apart.  She is an independent, successful woman in senior management with leftist opinions who has just bought a flat in a trendy part of London; he has a lowlier middle-management role, he lives with his mum, and his nan thinks he’s a Toryboy.  Laura seems quite sophisticated, while Danny seems rather rough around the edges, but they have been eyeing each other all evening.

Laura is very forward, making no bones about wanting to be kissed; Danny is clearly attracted to her, but is all diffidence and hesitancy. At first this seems to be a straightforward case of sexual confidence versus shyness and inhibition, and a great deal of comedy arises from Danny’s increasingly desperate attempts to avoid the perils of a first kiss. She wants him to sit by her; he chooses instead to tidy up her flat, or to open another bottle, or to find something to eat.  Wherein lie the causes of his reluctance and of her neediness?  Through dialogue that takes many twists and turns we learn that there is far more to this situation than at first appears. They talk frankly, but if one of them says something that touches a nerve, there follows a period of awkward silence that speaks eloquently of past hurts.  The comedy is shot through with poignancy, for there is a sad emptiness in both their lives.  Beginning touches on a number of contemporary social and moral issues, not the least of which is loneliness. Laura’s lifestyle is envied by her married friends, but she feels hollow, and is ‘tired of being called Auntie’. Danny has not always lived with his mum, and is by no means sexually inexperienced, but confesses that he is now somewhat ‘poorly maintained in the area of the groin’.  

Writer David Eldridge has created two characters who are immensely likeable, and all too human.  It is their flaws and their vulnerabilities that make them so sympathetic. Amanda Ryan and Simon Darwen inhabit their roles with total conviction, conveying very touchingly the agonising difficulties that can imperil the forming of a new, intimate relationship in mid-life. Danny and Laura’s situation has a number of possible outcomes.  He could leave; or he could stay for a one-night stand; or he could stay for much, much longer.  By the end of those 100 minutes, I for one was hoping that Danny and Laura were in for the long haul.   ★★★★★    Mike Whitton    28^th September 2021