Lands, Bush Theatre review ★★★★★

Following its sell-out run at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2017, Lands makes its London debut at the Bush Theatre. Created by award-winning theatre company Antler, this two-hander is billed as an absurd tragicomedy, and it certainly is all of those things. Actors Leah Brotherhead and Sophie Steer play versions of themselves; one of whom is a puzzle enthusiast and documentarian and the other is most at home when jumping on a trampoline. But as bizarre as the scenario might sound, Lands is an astonishingly insightful and distinctive exploration of relationships.

The relationship between them has no backstory yet still feels complex and fully drawn. Likewise, while the stage is set with only a desk for Brotherhead’s puzzles, a chair, a microphone, and a small trampoline, it fully elicits a sense of intrigue. Steer spends the majority of the play jumping on the trampoline, which is not only surprisingly captivating, but becomes the main challenge in their relationship as she admits she can’t stop jumping. What follows is Brotherhead and Steer attempting to navigate each others needs and desires, and finding out what in life and in their relationship they value most.

Director Jaz Woodcock-Stewart establishes a peculiar pacing, allowing long extended sequences of Brotherhead documenting in detail her 1000-piece puzzle through a microphone. But Brotherhead gives these episodes such enthusiasm, such extreme delight in the puzzle’s potential, that they lull you into a deep sense of comfort that’s then contorted as the play progresses.

Brotherhead and Steer are both intensely watchable, and they each offer their own unique but equally endearing humour. Some of the highlights are brief lip-sync to ‘Don’t Give Up’ by Peter Gabriel (feat. Kate Bush), and a celebratory dance to ‘Ain’t That Terrible’ by Roy Redmon.

Certainly a daring and potentially polarizing piece, Lands is nevertheless a rewarding and fresh piece of theatre that uses a bizarre series of events to excavate the fundamental difficulties all relationships face.