★★★★
KFC and a one-night stand make for a surprising but delicious theatrical combination. Most Favoured by multiple award-winning playwright Daniel Ireland drips with absurdity like a fatty chicken drumstick and reeks of odd, engaging pleasure.
With Max Elton as director, it’s haphazard throwing together of current dating culture, Scottish accents and a misplaced American tourist build into an interesting twist which takes everyone by surprise.
For in Most Favoured, everything is certainly not what it seems. Mary (Outlander’s Lauren Lyle) and Mike (Skins’ Alexander Arnold) wake up on stage after they have supposedly slept together on the night previous.
Straight out of Glasgow, Mary’s accent and her heritage booms at the very back of the auditorium whilst Mike’s American background appears shady from the start. He has never even heard of KFC, McDonald’s or even Burger King. Without spoiling the show, let us just say that this is not Mary’s first rodeo with this kind of date and that it is certainly Mike’s first. We watch this pair mentally and physically get tangled up in each other in this short 45-minute play without an interval.
It’s one of those rare two-handed productions that fights back against people who think theatre should be serious. It doesn’t care if it often won’t make complete sense. Short repetitive dialogue works almost in refrain within the script, cycling back round in on itself to frustrate actors and audience alike. Ireland’s writing refuses to be anywhere near predictable and a tension is created which is just waiting to broken. When the work’s double bombshell arrives, the audience are stunned as both characters twist the plot in unimaginable directions.
Most Favoured’s stage team keep it clean and clear with their design. Indeed, Ceci Calf’s set could be any Premier Inn or Travel Lodge up in Edinburgh where this piece takes place. Not to mention, that every detail in the dress of both Mary and Mike will give you a hint to the surprise we find in the work’s finale. The lighting designer (Amy Daniels) and sound designer (Marcus Rice) also add plenty of treats along the way for us to feast on with a chuckle.
Lyle’s and Arnold’s rapport is something to behold. Here are actors who know how to draw upon the intricacies of each other’s parts and engage us in the wackiest parts of the script. Luckily for us, not a moment goes by where they do not feel in sync.
Most Favoured will certainly not be Ireland’s last outing with his provocative and larger-than-life characters stuck in the most absurd of situations. It is sure to unsettle anyone on a run of theatrical Christmas classics and is a good break from repetitive festivities. We can only hope for plenty more.
Most Favoured will be performed at Soho Theatre until 26 January.
Words by Harry Speirs
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