MIDDLE

23 SEPTEMBER – 3 OCTOBER

By David Eldridge

Directed by Viki Betts

“Eldridge's writing remains consummately naturalistic, peppered with intentional loose ends and recognisable, awkward humour.”

The Stage

It’s 4.00 a.m. ……a couple are in the kitchen together as dawn breaks. It is time for an honest conversation – but how much honesty can any marriage take? Middle is a truthful, moving and funny portrait of a forty-something couple whose marriage hangs in the balance.

David Eldridge wrote a trilogy of plays depicting relationships and the different kinds of loneliness that exist in and out of them. They are all continuous action plays that exist in real time. In all three there’s music and dancing, some foodand drink and quite a bit of tidying up. The men all support West Ham United. The plays are set a decade ago, a time when the world was calmer, but standing

on the edge of disruption.

Following the huge success of staging Beginning last year, Viki Betts will again direct the second in this trilogy. Where Beginning was a couple taking steps towards their first commitment together, Middle captures the middle years of a marriage, full of reflection, familiarity and questioning. Is this what they wanted or expected from being together?

Is this the beginning of the end, or just the middle?