Amedee

Sean Foley’s speciality is comedy – he brought The Ladykillers to the stage, as well as The Play What I Wrote. His new treatment of Eugene Ionesco’s 1954 surrealist comedy drama Amedee is a frustrating, surface-skimming affair and Roxana Silbert’s production struggles to enliven this rather heartless farce.

Trevor Fox and Josie Lawrence play Amedee and Madeleine, a married couple with a dead body in their bedroom. It’s been there for 15 years, a reflection on their relationship, the body a metaphor for some past trauma or the ebbing away of love in their marriage.

The play is largely a two-hander with Fox giving a particularly funny performance; agile and lithe, he prowls the stage. Lawrence also does a good job of injecting some dramatic momentum into proceedings, and the couple’s constant good-natured bickering is nicely handled by both, but the production is devoid of peril.

Ti Green’s design, overflowing with books, is pleasingly rich and the last act coup de theatre is pulled off with skill within the Birmingham Repertory Theatre’s studio space. It’s an ambitious piece undoubtedly but it’s also dramatically unsatisfying and Foley’s update feels dusty.