In a Twitter-Hellish near-distant future no one is allowed to use more than 140 words per day so people have to pretty much stereotype themselves in order for others to see who and what they are quickly, which takes out a lot of what goes in to making a relationship, writes Michael Holland.
Sam Steiner’s Lemons, Lemons, Lemons, Lemons, Lemons, allows us to observe a couple dealing with all the ups and downs of meeting, falling in love and living together using an impossibly small amount of words.
Surrounded by a compartmentalised set of their life and accumulated belongings, everything organised and tidy, Bernadette (Jenna Coleman) and Oliver (Aidan Turner) are given to us in short scenes, some less than a minute, bursts of energy where the wheat of words is separated from the chaff of chatter, leaving us with just the bare essentials of communication.
Time is forgotten and sometimes out of whack as we whizz through their time together, rapidly going from always saying ‘I love you’ to always saying ‘Sorry’. We see them go from idyllic to train wreck in seconds as they look lovingly into each other’s eyes and then gaze suspiciously. They argue over class, and politics and going on demonstrations. Musician Oliver’s insecurities come to the fore over lawyer Bernadette earning more than him.
Each scene begins with them saying how many words they have left when they arrive home from work. Should they waste any on, ‘How was your day?’ Perhaps they could drop saying ‘I love you’ if it’s been said so many times before. And cutting out saying ‘Really’ as a prefix would help.
We see them working out a more minimal way of communicating: ‘Does ‘can’t’ count as one word?’ And why does he keep wasting words on mentioning his ex…? They try morse code by banging on the floor, which dies at the first dash.
A favourite scene of mine was when they argued and Oliver ran out of his daily quota, leaving Bernadette room to verbally come out with both barrels blazing.
And in between the awkward moments, there are the loving times as we run through the whole gamut of two people being together.
And there is comedy: Just before Oliver goes out to protest against the ‘Hush law’ he says, ‘They will hear us marching in space!’ Bernadette, the sensible one, reminds him that, ‘There’s no one in space.’
Lemons is not an easy watch, its fragmented and scrambled text often confuses, and at one point gave me a flashback to throwing a William Burroughs book at the wall in frustration. But once you understand the concept and wonderful direction by Josie Rourke, it all gels with Steiner’s script.
Plus, Turner and Coleman give outstanding performances.
Harold Pinter Theatre, Panton Street, SW1Y 4SW until 18th March. Admission: £15 – £150.
Booking: www.haroldpintertheatre.co.uk – 03330 096 690