Tender Review – Passion and Dangerous Promise in a Surreal Horror Romance | stage

THis strange and seductive show premiered in this theater’s smaller studio space two years ago. It is a dark love story between two women, one of whom is in a long-term relationship with a man and the other is experimenting with women. They both suffer in different ways.

Kemp-Cyffy returns as Ivy while the talented Francesca Amoada-Rivers takes over the role of Ash. It’s tight, sexy, and turbulent. The play takes place in and around Amuada Rivers City, which makes it have an extraordinary presence above everything else.

She extracts every drop of poetry from the text of Eleanor Tyndale, whose drama might be called a strange romance, a haunted house story or a horror. All of these things, the twisty, twisty surprises that sparkle with dangerous promises, have not all come true. This is a frustrating but gripping journey nonetheless.

The back wall in the Alys Whitehead set is a patterned board that ripples and vibrates with the unexplained ‘noises’ in Ash’s apartment (fantastic sound design by Ellie Isherwood). The house seems possessed by something unidentified, and the sheet is reminiscent of the shadow in Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper.

Just as this short story has a controlling husband, there is an abusive male figure here in Ash’s ex-fiancé Cas, although Ivy’s boyfriend, Max, increasingly displays coercive controlling behavior as well, which he attempts to portray as reasonable and caring.

The stalkers in Tender could be a manifestation of the masculine terror experienced by women who pay the price for poor mental health. But the metaphors are too many – eating meat, but also cutting it up – and while the surrealism is exciting, it doesn’t quite make sense. The blood on the stage suggests violence and you begin to suspect that one of the characters may be trapped in some kind of afterlife, even though this goes against the logic of the central romance.

The strange phenomena in Ash’s apartment mean nothing – the wallpaper has been stripped away with nothing left behind revealed. Does it represent a mental breakdown? Or get out? The flaw here is the confusion of potentially conflicting meanings. Strangely, the violence in Ash’s past is never adequately explained, even though Cass’s pursuit of her seems real.

However, there are elements in this play that are so strong that the loose ends don’t frustrate as much as they might. In a production directed by Emily Abboud, the movement is almost dance-like in moments of sexual passion, and there is some beautiful lyricism in the characters’ dual narratives.

Sometimes it’s mushy, slippery and stuffy like raw meat. At 90 minutes, the meal is not entirely filling but every bite is delicious.