Syncopation, Bridewell Theatre Review ★★★★★

‘Why walk through life when you can dance?’ asks Henry Ribolow. A meatpacker by day, he is obsessed with ballroom dancing and is looking for a dancing partner with whom to share his overriding passion.

So starts Syncopation, a charming chamber piece of a play with ambitions more fitting to a full orchestral symphony. And why not? Penned by the prolific American playwright Allan Knee, and the winner of an American Theatre Critics Best New Play Award, it’s an involving two-hander set in 1912 New York, in the early days of ballroom dancing, then epitomised by Irene and Vernon Castle, who were to become the subjects of a Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers film.

Ribolow’s persistent press adverts attract the prim but curious Anna Bianchi, a 24-year-old beader in a clothes factory, who comes to the pokey, dusty room he rented as a rehearsal space, and is promptly made painfully aware of her own audacity by the shabby, unfamiliar surroundings.

There follows a push-pull, totally plausible and hugely entertaining dialogue, where Anna tries to resist, but gradually succumbs to Henry’s persuasive attempts to convince her to join him as a dancing partner. The daughter of a small shop owner, and herself engaged to a dry goods store owner – definitely a good prospect as a husband – she feels the contradictory pull of a respectable life as a wife and mother, on the one hand, and the excitement of, as she puts it, ‘crossing a line’, on the other.

The first line she crosses makes it easier to cross others. As dance the partnership flourishes, she starts seeking the company of a group of feminists known as The Odd Women, and goes on a march in support of votes for women; she starts to read books and talk about ideas. Awkward and obsessive Henry, though, is only interested in dancing.

It’s clear to the audience, though maybe not to the protagonists themselves, that they are falling in love; but is the distance between them too great to allow for a happy ending? No spoilers here.

Syncopation is a perfect fit for the Bridewell Theatre, a small jewel tucked away at the east end of Fleet Street, which has consistently punched above its weight since its foundation in 1994, as it does again with this Manila Street production, directed by Karen Jemison and choreographed by Strictly regular Jenny Thomas.

Huge credit must go to the two leads: Jye Frasca as Henry Ribolow and Devon-Elise Johnson as Anna Bianchi. Excellent actors both, they sing – Johnson, in particular has a remarkable voice – and dance, with Frasca totally convincing as a would-be ballroom dancer. Their chemistry makes an already interesting story totally involving.

The ragtime score is played live by three musicians placed on a gallery above the stage, where Mayou Trikerioti’s set is made up mostly of green-tinged wooden crates, visible enough to provide an atmosphere, yet discreet enough to morph as different settings.