Alexandra Wood's play, The Empty Quarter, refers to the largest expanse of desert in the middle east, but it's the empty spaces in the lives of ex-pat Brits that we're exploring. Greg and Holly are twenty-somethings with a swanky life and gleaming flat in Dubai. When Greg chucks his job to return home, his bank instantly freezes his accounts and he's imprisoned for insolvency. Veteran British property tycoon, Patrick, lends Greg the £150,000 he needs to be freed. The loan is at five per cent interest, with a commitment to work for Patrick for fifteen years. Greg is trapped in the Emirates after all.
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| Not the full shilling |
But this is really a play about the women: gym-bunny Gemma, Patrick's menopausal trophy wife, and Holly who is secretly planning to cross the desert alone. When Holly comes a cropper, Gemma becomes her New Best Friend, but it all goes tits up when Holly becomes pregnant and Patrick's business fails. Without a clear plan for the future, Gemma has to acknowledge that twenty five years of fleeting friendships have left her with no support and little happiness. The surprise in the story however, if Woods' facts are correct, is the way Brits in Dubai are treated. It seems extraordinary that banks can seize assets, that a a tax free super-salary is insufficient to service a small mortgage, and that you can be imprisoned without a peep from the British Consul. Avoid at all costs.
In conclusion: Director Anna Ledwich livens up endless conversations with food and a highly physical work out in which actors, Geraldine Alexander and Jodie McNee, neither break sweat nor miss a word. At the end of the evening, however, it's we who've been through a work out, and our stomachs are no flatter. It's a stuffed mushroom moment. Life's too short.
References
Hampstead Theatre, Tickets
Hampstead Theatre, Eton Avenue, London NW3 3EU Run ends 26 October
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