Despite taking an immediate dislike to him, she’s quickly won over by his unexpected ability to cut though the crap when a couple of model types try to queue jump.
The translucent egg-shell blue background intermittently gives way to a domestic setting or a shopping precinct, the brief blaze of colours swiftly bleeding away to leave just a few bright splashes – an orange mug, a child’s toy – in Es Devlin’s taunting set which suggests that things aren’t quite what they seem. Here Mulligan (the sole performer who is never named) interacts with children we cannot see – her squabbling son and older daughter- in ordinary, everyday domesticity. The little boy seems to have a particularly destructive bent.
Slowly her story is revealed in Dennis Kelly’s 90 minute monologue – the fate of her husband’s business, her unexpected success in documentary film making. the changes in their marriage.
It wouldn’t be fair to reveal too much – the pleasure and the pain is all there in Mulligan’s performance, Returning to the theatre where she made her stage debut as a teenager 13 years ago, she’s magnetic in Lyndsey Turner’s engrossing production.
Royal Court Theatre, Sloane Square, SW1W 8AS
Tube: Sloane Square
Until 17th March 2018
£12.00 – £45.00
