Review: Seven Year Twitch, Orange Tree Theatre

“Everybody's fucked up – it's just that some are better at hiding it than others”

Fran and Terry are married but as a committed twitcher (or bird-watcher), his attentions are lying more with the yellow-bellied flycatcher and its ilk as he’s preciously close to his 500th bird, leaving her most dissatisfied indeed and increasingly vulnerable to the attentions of her romantically interested boss Ben. It just so happens all three are seeing a psychotherapist, either Charlie or Megan, but even they haven’t got their lives sorted as closeted Megan can’t hide her attraction to his wife Karen – what larks indeed.

David Lewis’ Ayckbournish new play revels in its farcical goings-on as a bunch of screw ups give screwed up advice to another bunch of screw ups, wrapped up in endless pyschobabble, but has little that is truly original to say about the pros and cons of therapy and how it impacts the life of the therapists themselves. Lewis directs his own play but has little sensibility for managing a play in the round, with far too many scenes remaining highly static and thus presenting far too much unmoving back to look at.

But through the ‘women are from Venus and men are from Mars’ schtick, there are some appealing performances from Paul Kemp and Lucy Tregear as the therapists, and Simon Mattacks and Amanda Royle as the unhappily married couple. It’s just a shame that they haven’t got more fluid writing to work with – the shifts between comedy and drama are extremely marked and rarely inform each other – or a director willing to address some of these issues in the text. 

Running time: 2 hours 20 minutes (with interval)
Booking until 22nd June

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