Two Halves
★★★☆☆ Relentless Naturalism
Studio at theSpaceTriplex (Venue 38): Fri 7- Sat 22 Aug 2026
Review by Ed Bouter-Comer
Oil and water. Rugby and football. Some things don’t mix well. If Muddrag Productions, creators of Two Halves at Studio at theSpaceTriplex are to be trusted, perhaps we should be adding men and women to that list of incompatible things.
Writer/Actor Sam Rowlands presents three substantial snippets from the lives of a pair of athletes. Rowlands plays a later-career Welsh rugby player Sean Mertens, with Director/Actor Zoë Lerman as Sophie Marsden, a US soccer player, very much coming into the height of her popularity.
Zoë Lerman and Sam Rowlands. Pic: Ryan Hunt.
The dialogue is hyper-naturalistic, full of overlap, ‘ums’ and sometimes awkward pauses. This plays to strong effect in the opening section, where the two meet in a side room at an American sports awards dinner. Brimming with the sort of cringe moments and minor misunderstandings of a first, flirty meeting, the scene is effective in setting the characters up as worth rooting for. It also sows all the seeds needed to demonstrate that they are not a perfect fit.
The second vignette is a difficult watch. The action jumps in time and the relationship is already showing significant cracks. Lerman and Rowlands rip lumps out of each other verbally. Such is the intimacy of the space and the potential for the violence to shift from verbal to literal that there is a genuine sense of danger here.
The shadow of the physicality of both sports hangs over the section. There are moments where it feels like watching things that one has no right to see, which again reinforces the relentless naturalism on offer.
reconciliatory
As a more reconciliatory tone settles for the third section, Rowlands leaves questions and avoids any attempt at forcing a trite or neat ending for the piece.
This is noble fringe theatre and has significant potential. Tightly written and neatly directed, it explores themes bigger than the relationship at its core. Two Halves leaves the audience wondering if rugby and football, perhaps even men and women, have something to say to each other, after all.
Running time: 50 minutes (no interval).
theSpaceTriplex (Studio), The Prince Philip Building, EH8 9DP (Venue 38).
Friday 7 – Saturday 22 August 2026.
Daily (Not 16): 6.05pm.
Tickets and details: Book here at EdFringe.com.
Tickets direct from venue: Book here.
Instagram: @twohalvesplay
Instagram: @muddragproductions
ENDS
