Waiting in Love
★★★☆☆ Waiting too long
Paradise in the Vault (Venue 29): Mon 11 – Sat 16 Aug 2025
Review by Tom Ralphs
Waiting in Love, Moreland Productions Fringe debut written by Scott Young, follows Alan, a would be writer and actual stoner, through a year that begins with him breaking up with his partner and ends with him still not over her.
The show opens with nicely-turned mis-direction as Alan (Freddie Carew-Reid) and girlfriend Sam (Rosie Pierce) return from a funeral. A scene which sets up the two characters but also captures the wider humour and reality in the premise.
Kate Bonnell and Freddie Carew-Reid. Pic: Moreland Productions.
An agreement to meet again in a month lays the groundwork for a sequence of scenes that see Sam reinvent herself first as Sammy and then as Samantha, while Alan stays resolutely as Alan even while he briefly starts a relationship with another woman (Lacy played by Catherine Dauphin), in a scene that injects energy into the script by adding an extra element to it.
As the play progresses Alan doesn’t. At times this is amusing, particularly when clever stage management and direction by Megan Cox sees various pieces of detritus chucked on to the stage while Alan sits on oblivious. However, overall, Alan’s inability to move forward while his ex continues to transform herself, makes the static nature of the central character a barrier to the story.
By the end of the near 80 minute show, you wish Young or Cox had edited the script rather more judiciously, to fit within a traditional sub-60 minute fringe slot. Particularly in a closing scene that continues way beyond the point where it is funny.
confusing
The decision to have different actors play the different versions of Sam/Sammy/Samantha is also confusing, as the lack of any physical resemblance between Pierce as Sam and Isabella Heaver as Sammy initially makes it hard to realise that they are meant to be the same person. There is also a big contrast between the appearance of Heaver and Kate Bonnell as Samantha.
Curtain call: Catherine Dauphin (Lacy), Rosie Pierce (Sam), Kate Bonnell (Samantha) and Isabella Heaver (Sammy). Pic: Moreland Productions.
While this may be meant to indicate how much she has changed while Alan hasn’t, it arguably isn’t needed when the script itself makes clear how her life has changed. The three actors give convincing performances in the roles they’ve been given, but the performances don’t combine to create a coherent character.
As Lacy, Dauphin provides enough of a contrast to the varieties of Sam to provide the possibility of change for Alan, while also tapping into the same tropes that make her a likely potential partner for him.
Carew-Reid captures the stay-at-home drug taking slacker vibe of Alan, but his inertia robs him of the chance to give the character any other defining features, and also robs the play of any real sense of purpose or movement.
Running time: One hour and 20 minutes (no interval).
Paradise in The Vault (The Vault), 11 Merchant Street EH1 2QD (Venue 29).
Monday 11 – Saturday 16 August 2025.
Daily: 8.45pm.
Tickets and details: Book here on EdFringe.com.
Book here on EdFest.com.*
*affiliate link.
Instagram: @waiting.in.love
ENDS
