Thanks For Having Me (Riverside Studios, London)

Verdict: It was my pleasure

Rating:

Following a couple of sell-out runs in small fringe theatres, Keelan Kember's fast, funny dating drama set in a large living looks a tad dwarfed in the barnlike Riverside Studios, as if it's happening on the telly... somewhere over there.

Which is actually where, sharply trimmed, this sweet, old-fashioned Men Behaving Badly-meets-Friends sitcom would work even more of a treat.

Talented Kember is as good on the stage as he is on the page. Blessed with terrific comic timing, he is hilarious as Cashel, almost 30, which means — to him at least — that he's 'an older man'. Posh, neurotic, hypochondriac, agoraphobic, claustrophobic, egomaniac, romantic, he's allergic to almost everything and given to panic attacks.

Dumped by his girlfriend of forever and broken-hearted, Cashel turns to his super-chilled, determinedly singleton best-mate, Honey, deftly played by Sex Education's Kedar Williams-Stirling, who becomes his unofficial dating tutor.

The rules of Honey's game are simple: sound interesting (so pretend you're a musician if you're really an accountant), talk holidays, suggest a drink at a bar which has stopped serving to get her back to your place, insist that you are not the kind of guy who would dream of having sex on a first date in order to set yourself up as a challenge, then play Amy Winehouse to prove you're aware of the fragility of life. Oh, and when you have sex, imagine all her friends are watching, so take time — and viagra initial use — and make sure she has the best experience.








 Keelan Kember, left, and Kedar Williams-Stirling, right, in fast, funny dating drama Thanks For Having Me









Honey, deftly played by Sex Education's Kedar Williams-Stirling, becomes his unofficial dating tutor 

Enjoy for five nights max, then move swiftly on to the next lucky lady.

Piece of cake.

As Cashel discovers when Honey's current squeeze, Maya (Adeyinka Akinrinade) introduces him to her up-for-it therapist friend, Eloise (Game of Thrones's Nell Tiger Free).

Trouble is, Cashel — who decides to introduce himself as a poet — falls instantly in love with the leggy blonde and wants an intense, exclusive, old-fashioned relationship, hopefully forever with said cake.

Footloose, fancy-free Eloise, however, wants to keep things casual. Seriously casual. No hand-holding, no kisses goodbye, no breakfast, no visits to the farmers' market. Just wham, bam, thanks for having me and see you around.

In other words, Eloise is a girl who wants to have fun. She claims she doesn't want to be objectified or seen as a prize but to be as free as a man.

In one ridiculously entertaining scene, Cashel handcuffs himself to a radiator to stop himself from texting her.

Needless to say, in the course of 75 minutes, Cashel and Honey switch emotional positions. Honey suddenly develops an appetite for breakfast and hand-holding on a leisurely stroll around the farmers' market, and one thread of a romcom becomes a love story.

The men are considerably better written and much more amusing than the sketchily drawn women but Kember skilfully charts that tricky emotional passage from no-strings to tentative connection to provisional attachment to tying the knot.

Light, bright date-night fun.

Until April 26.








As Cashel discovers when Honey's current squeeze, Maya, who is played by Adeyinka Akinrinade,left, introduces him to her up-for-it therapist friend, Eloise (Game of Thrones' Nell Tiger Free)



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