Sultry, raunchy, and nail-bitingly agitated, the female-led powerhouse of Full Frontal Theatre's To Watch a Man Eat is a salivatingly tense depiction of our complicated class system and the need to stray away from its moulds, writes Flora Guildford.
Photography courtesy of Full Frontal Theatre
Full Frontal Theatre’s dark, hilarious, and salivatingly tense To Watch a Man Eat stormed its way into London this week in the wonderful Old Red Lion Theatre. After a rip roaring takeover of Edinburgh Fringe last month, the Angel theatre-pub was the perfect space for their next run of performance, encapsulating the audience and providing an intimate setting to get to know such fantastically written characters.
To Watch A Man Eat is a raunchy and satirical depiction of class, starring Micky (George Usher), Melissa (Lily Walker) and Andrew (George Lorimer). Melissa and Andrew are the perfect upper-middle class couple with an extravagant townhouse and a visceral drive to be the very best. Sex, class and power remain explicit themes throughout the entire performance: every single word of playwright Sadie Pearson’s text feels purposeful and powerful.
Andrew, blinded by his environment and stuck firmly on the conveyor belt of corporate life, is played exquisitely by Lorimer, capturing the downfall of a cocky, bullish rich chap, to an insecure, terrified and lost man who just longs for some form of free release. Walker, in addition, provides one of the best performances of female rage and neurosis that I have seen in a long time. Watching her body contort and eyes well up at the sheer possibility that a man may dare to be vegetarian, as she tenses and strokes her perfect husband and his ‘herculean’ physique, was an immense beginning to her sexy and disturbing spiral.
Indeed, as Mickey quips in perhaps my favourite monologue of the play, "you’d be surprised to know that most of your life is flammable". As the audience experience the thrilling and foul-mouthed ruination of Andrew and Melissa, Usher’s Mickey provides the comic relief; calm, cocky and collected, his winks as he guzzled down his trifle had me giggling like a schoolgirl. Sultry, raunchy, and nail-bitingly agitated, To Watch a Man Eat serves as an eye opener to our complicated class system, and the need to stray away from its moulds.
Full Frontal Theatre are a female-led power throuple of talent, consisting of Sadie Pearson as the writer, Hen Ryan as director, and Grace Shropshire as producer. Pearson provides personal insight into the process of writing such a spot-on depiction of being captured by corporate life:
‘The script draws on my experiences of north/south divide, parental bereavement and the oxymoronic feelings of ‘financial insecurity’ within the middle class - the fears and social entrapments which keep us all from grabbing life by the bollocks and living it to the fullest.’
Certainly, these sentiments rang true. The play, as many of the audience members agreed with me afterwards, was an exceptionally powerful combination of grief, money and control. And, for those who are (understandably) feeling left out, it is reassuring to know that Pearson’s next play will be brought to the Lion & Unicorn, Kentish Town, from 17th to 21st December. Rodney Black, who cares? Its Working is one of the Alpine Fellowship Theatre Prize winners of 2024. Full Frontal teases:
‘The play is written as an exploration of the ethics of language and the responsibility we have over what we deliver to the audiences… in the comedy world, where controversy is king, when does the joke stop being funny?’
From left to right: Ryan, Shropshire and Pearson. Photography courtesy of Full Frontal Theatre.
It’s fair to say that we are on the edge of our seats for the next masterpiece from Pearson, Ryan and Shropshire. And, after such a spellbinding performance from Lorimer, Walker and Usher, we can feel confident that the next cast will not disappoint, as it is clear that the direction and mentorship within Full Frontal is exactly what modern theatre needs. ‘Rodney Black, who cares? Its Working is one to look out for.
Flora Guildford is a London-based writer, MA Art History postgraduate and a budding curator.
