If you think back to all the people you’ve wronged in your life over the years, how many would feature on that list? A few exes, someone you bullied at school, a disgruntled work colleague or two, a family member, maybe? Do you think if you listed them all it would be well over 100?
In playwright Dave Florez’s hilarious three-hander The Gift, we meet our leading man Colin (Nicholas Burns), his sister Lisa (Laura Haddock), and her husband Brian (Alex Price), also Colin’s old schoolmate, as they start to pull together a list of who could have sent Colin a mysterious ‘gift’.
The play opens with the three of them in Colin’s kitchen peering into a box. The gift. It’s not long before we realise that the present within is actually faeces. Someone has taken the time to post said contents in a beautiful white cake box from a fancy patisserie, complete with pink ribbon and neatly wrapped in cling film. It’s important to note that the box wasn’t simply left on his doorstep, nope, the sender sent it officially via the Post Office. Who would do such a thing and why?
Well, here we are. Laughing our heads off and side-eyeing Colin as he completely spirals trying to find the ‘poopetrator’. Bear with me. There are a lot of great, poo-themed gags in this play and a few have slipped into this review because these double entendres had the audience in stitches. Clearly, as adults, we have not outgrown our love for toilet humour.
Colin’s sister is desperately trying to make him see sense and get on with his life, whilst her husband succeeds in winding up an already tightly wound Colin who, we quickly learn, generally struggles to just move on and let things go.
All three actors do an excellent job at pulling us into this delivery mystery come whodunnit and we’re fully invested in getting to the ‘bottom’ of who sent the turd in a cake box. There’s a big reveal in the first half and I can still hear the audible collective gasp of the audience as no one can quite believe it. Some of us even covered our mouths in shock. It’s one of the best “dun dun duuun” moments I’ve seen (and heard) in theatre for a while. Bravo!
This disclosure is the catalyst to Colin’s descent causing him to completely shut off from the world. This coincides with Lisa and Brian’s couples’ retreat, which they end up cutting short as Colin isn’t answering their calls and has stopped going to work. They turn up unannounced at his flat to find him living in squalor and learning how to breathe. Properly.
Adam Meggido’s direction is fluid and expertly builds the suspense as to why Colin was sent a ‘cack pack’. The actors make good use of designer Sarah Perks’ space as they move from the kitchen to the living room to discuss various aspects of Colin’s obvious midlife crisis. Receiving this ‘gift’ has given rise to him questioning his life choices and wanting to make amends as he tracks people down from his past to try to figure out if they sent him this ‘special’ delivery.
The list is creeping up – from 32, 49, and finally 134! As the number increases, so does our knowledge of just how desperate he is to close in on the culprit. So much so that he refuses to dispose of the package and ends up keeping it in his freezer! As you do.
Dave Florez’s relatable style of writing is a gift in itself, with scene after scene of much-needed light relief in these current times. Standout parts include the retelling of Colin’s email exchange between him and a colleague and Dan ‘DJ’ Johnson’s fight scene, both written with eye-watering side-splitting genius.
The Gift is a brilliantly executed comedy and an opportunity for us to shake off those January blues, and revel in the silliness of Colin’s plight. A must-see!