You know there are A-listers in town when there's an army of autograph hunters at Stage Door at Manchester Opera House. The theatre plays host this week to Poldark star Aidan Turner and Doctor Who's Jenna Coleman - two of showbusiness's hottest properties - on stage in a new production of Sam Steiner's Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons.
They are the considerable star pulls for this show. And it perhaps explains why there is such feverish interest in what would otherwise be a quite unusual play to see on an Opera House stage more accustomed to hosting blockbuster musicals and family-friendly stalls fillers.
This production arrives here in Manchester fresh from the West End where it has been described as a "tender and funny rom-com about what we say, how we say it, and what happens when we can’t say anything anymore". I'm not entirely convinced on the tender or funny description, but it's certainly a thought-provoking play nonetheless about a world where only 140 words a day are allowed to be uttered.
Read more: Mrs Brown's Boys play coming back to Manchester this year
The play flits between timelines to show how a ridiculous Government idea to impose a limited speaking rule on the general public is somehow lapped up and voted through by the masses. With Brexit still rather fresh in minds, it has an added resonance here.
We are introduced to musician Oliver who is protesting against the proposals, while level-headed lawyer Bernadette is seemingly on the fence. They are both visibly shattered when the "hush law" does indeed, inexplicably, get voted through.
They are then left to negotiate the new rules amid their own fractious relationship. Don't be fooled by the publicity shots for the show - Aidan is almost unrecognisable on stage here in Manchester to become Oliver with a huge bushy beard while Jenna is Bernadette with bouffant blonde bob.
He hates the way she interrupts his stories, she hates the way he makes her feel small. She has an annoying way of mentioning how much more she gets paid than him as a lawyer, he gets a bit too angry about inconsequential things.
It's basically a bleak portrait on stage of how every relationship can end up as a right old mess with red flags waving everywhere.
The fact that two of our best-loved and most-admired actors in showbiz right now can create such unlikeable characters on stage is testament to their extraordinary talent I suppose. Through the play's timeshifting format we get to watch their relationship tentatively form and then fray and unravel, shunting between flashback and real time with unnerving speed.
It all makes you wonder why on earth they're still together. But somehow they battle on, and decide to work through the whole 140-word-a-day thing.
Until, by the end, all the meaningless junk around them (characterised by the quite brilliant backdrop of an overstuffed broom cupboard) begins to slide away into the gods.
Left alone with just each other, they really start to talk things out. With just 140 words.
Bernadette finally gets the answer she thought she was looking for. And then... it's all over.
There's no interval and therefore no respite from the feeling of impending doom in the piece, although that means it does all finish by 9pm. If life gives you lemons, and all that.
Many leapt to their feet for a standing ovation at the end, others shaking their heads and wondering what had just gone on. It's that sort of a piece that you could really love, or you could really just not get at all.
Even using the word "really" starts to give me shivers at this point, if you've seen the play you'll understand, or maybe dunderstand, why.
Personally I found much to admire in the characterisations on stage, and seeing two actors flesh out with convincing realism the complexities and mundanity of modern love.
Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons will definitely leave you with plenty to talk about on the way home that's for sure. And thankful that you have more than 140 words to do it.
Until Saturday, March 25 at Manchester Opera House
Read more:
