‘Flat 2’ asks a wonderfully morbid and unique question – if two couples move in together, and after forty-eight hours one half of each couple dies, what do you do? Lucy Foley’s debut play premiered in London last year, and then moved to Edinburgh Fringe. I caught the show at the Wandsworth Arts Fringe Festival, and was especially impressed with how the show’s ability to examine the awkwardness, and trauma, of grief through a darkly comic lens.
Although the venue that I saw the show in was not its permanent one, it was in Wandsworth was for two days, it was well utilized. An underground arch with a leak is as ‘student housing’ as you can get, and the intimate nature of the space served the story, as, when you are the one grieving, all eyes are on you.
From the off, the play manages to reflect the reality of grief, as it fields the age-old question of ‘what do we do now?’ The play accepts that grief has no guidebook, especially when you are in your twenties. Ava (Lucy Foley) and Freddie (Tom Ashen) are left debating what an appropriate mourning food is, and whether ordering a Deliveroo would be offensive. This is not only witty, but painfully relatable. I, after losing a loved one, questioned whether watching TV was an acceptable activity. While there is a slowness to this opening, as the characters process their immediate situation, it works, as at the shows core are two eminently watchable and sophisticated performers.
Foley and Ashen both capture the subtle nuances of their characters’ grief experiences. Foley looks longing into the distance, Ashen turns his back to the audience and quietly sobs. Both performers make these two very different grief experiences palpably real, and relatable. From the off, both have a delicious chemistry even though we know as an audience, they really shouldn’t.
The play has an uncanny ability, as mentioned, to go from darkness to dark comedy. A good example of one of these early switches is the appearance of Freddie hyping up a bunch of imaginary five-year-olds dressed as The Stig for Tyler’s fifth birthday party. Foley and Ashen’s dynamic, as well as the early appearance of our fake Stig all contributed to the air of unpredictability that surrounds the piece, and I’ll admit, the directions it took surprised me for the better.
I know we shouldn’t have preconceptions or assumptions, but based on the press released I believed that we would be with these characters for the early days of their grief. Instead, we get a smart montage of the days after the deaths of Stefan and Billie. Ava and Freddie repeat the same day, over and over and prove the inevitable fact that after death, life stops for no one. The play follows these two characters for several months, allowing for a proper, nuanced examination of grief.
Every plot point has time to properly breathe, be addressed, and as a result, we end the show with a pair of fully rounded characters. The show elicited laughs and tears provided a nuanced interrogation of grief and managed to be light hearted at the same time. To accomplish this, in such a short amount of time, is impressive.
Shine bright like a diamond.
5/5
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