Strong performances can’t make The Gift worth unwrapping at Park Theatre
“Why would someone want to do this to me?”
As a starting point, receiving a box of shit in the post is certainly an eye-opening one. Dave Florez’s The Gift opens on such a scenario as Colin shows off his unusual parcel to his sister Lisa and her husband Brian. They’re a bit more circumspect about the whole thing, suggesting throwing it away and making a trip to the local Thai restaurant to forget about it, but Colin has been sent into a paranoid spiral he’s not escaping from any time soon.
There’s a trail of clues, seemingly left as breadcrumbs – the container is a box from a local posh patisserie, the sender used recorded mail, they also used Colin’s middle name – and Colin seizes on these as he resolves to find out who has targeted him. But as something of an unreconstructed manchild, he’s soon going full-on Carrie-from-Homeland on the kitchen cabinet and Lisa and Brian’s patience wears increasingly thin.
Depending on your preference for poo jokes, your own patience might also be tested. Adam Meggido’s production doesn’t show off the comic fleetness that has characterised so much of his career as Florez’s play rolls out with largely sitcom-like predictability. The action barely moves from Sara Perks’ contemporary apartment set and you really feel that staticness with little excitement breaking through the often lethargic pacing.
It’s a shame as there’s committed performances from Nicholas Burns’ Colin, consumed by revisiting petty grievances from the past as his midlife crisis threatens to swallow him up, Laura Haddock’s Lisa, whose tolerance of all these shenanigans moves ever closer to the edge, and Alex Price’s wryly amused Brian, watching in slight disbelief from the sidelines. The extended gag about an email is very well done but this is mostly a gift you’ll want to return to sender.
