Simon Ward reviews There Is A Light And A Whistle For Attracting Attention at the Hen and Chickens Theatre

Coming to London after a summer tour across the country, There Is A Light And A Whistle For Attracting Attention is a one woman play, written and performed by Henri Merriam. The set consists of a single chest of drawers sitting on a patch of astroturf, but it is the hardest working piece of furniture I have ever witnessed on stage. Its drawers hold all manner of props, and it even manages to represent a marriage guidance counsellor. Because Merriam’s theme is relationships, or more specifically, one spectacularly bad relationship.

An energetic and engaging performer, Merriam takes us on a journey from a country childhood spent learning from Celine Dion’s power ballad All By Myself that the worst thing in life would be to end up alone and on the shelf, to a slightly desperate attempt in her thirties to fashion a chance encounter with a taciturn man, Tom, into a ‘meet-cute’ moment. They somehow end up together in spite of being incompatible – he assumes that she will be impressed by his speeding down country lanes, whereas she is merely terrified. She, in turn, cannot believe that he has never seen Grease. Although it does give her a chance to deliver a lovely potted version which perfectly captures the essence of the movie in a minute or two. Tom is an off-stage voice – his deadpan, dead-eyed delivery leading a clearly frustrated Merriam to try ever harder to please him, which in turn annoys him further, in a never-ending cycle of misery and depression.

Director Sophia Capasso and Merriam have worked hard to ensure that this is anything but a woman alone on stage for an hour and fifteen minutes. There is an extended trip back to the Garden of Eden, complete with snake, which confirms that the dice are loaded against women from the very beginning. The advice and interjections of her friends are delivered via microphone as if testifying in court. And a lot of the time she is essentially talking to herself as though attempting to settle a court case- was there more she could have done, did she make herself clear, was she scrupulously fair? Before they get married there are some couple-based activities in which it transpires that she is doing all the work in the relationship – she persuades herself that this is OK because she is happy to do it. Yet when they end up in couples therapy, and she finds out that he has a very long list of her deficiencies, she comes to understand that there is nothing she could ever have done that would have satisfied him.

In a pleasingly ambiguous ending, there is a glimmer of hope when she finds herself alone and happy, at last, feeling solidarity with others who have also managed to somehow make their escape.

There Is A Light And A Whistle For Attracting Attention is running at the Hen and Chickens Theatre, 109 Saint Paul’s Road, London N1 2NA until Sunday 13th September