The Peasant's Club's 'You and Me and the Devil Makes Three', written by Chesper Harland and Charlie Wolf, focuses on the relationships between Tig, Chris, and Roo. Chris and Roo's relationship struggles following the birth of an unplanned child, while Tig, an old friend who has been forced by his circumstance to live in their flat, serves as intermediary. Another old friend of Roo's, Lottie, has a long standing crush on Tig, but he brings a new partner into the flat, the mysterious Maria, whose appearance sparks the action of the play. The struggles and secrets revealed while Maria toys with Chris, Roo, and Lottie, brings the tension bubbling between these characters to boiling point.
The show's writing, which makes promising inroads to the ambitious and varied political topics of mental health, gender expression, parenting, relationships, domestic violence, and even housing, is unfortunately the weakest element of what was ultimately an engaging and enjoyable piece of performance. For what was only an hour long piece of theatre the focus was muddled by the preponderance of topics, and the abrupt ending came at the expense of truly exploring the depths of the characters and their relationships, and also led to some inconsistency in character development. The use of bigotry against the Roma people as comic relief also felt hackneyed, though it did produce a lot of laughs for the rest of the audience. There was a huge amount of promise in the exploration of Chris' character, and a show which focused solely on him might ultimately be the better one.
The acting on a whole was excellent, with a compelling performance (and excellent singing) by David Walker as Chris centring the show, alongside the strong and nuanced performance by Amy Melley as Roo. Ruari Cannon also had great commitment as Tig, including a good sense of timing, and the ensemble was well rounded out by the comedic portrayal of Lottie by Mai Elphinstone and the imperviousness of Maria was presented well by Alexis Han-Holdren. The ensemble as a whole made the show.
Considering the small budget, the squalid flat setting designed by Alys Woodhead felt believable and enhanced the sense of claustrophobia present in these characters' lives, and the direction of Phil Bartlett clearly gave great space for the performances of the actors to develop.
While 'You and Me and the Devil Makes Three' might be let down by its somewhat convoluted writing, it is an engaging piece of theatre and worth seeing, and worth further development.
***
'You and Me and The Devil Makes Three' is at The Bread & Roses Theatre from 24.11.15-28.11.15 at 7:30pm. Running Time is 75 minutes. Tickets £10, £8 concession. It is produced by MSP.
