Clean Slate | Pleasance Theatre

Clean Slate, by Louisa Marshall and Amber Charlie Conroy, is a one-woman show about the downfall of a relationship due to the domestic incompetence of one man. Or is it all men?

We follow the story of a woman, played by Marshall, as she falls in love with a man, played by various members of the audience, from the first time they meet until their inevitable break-up 4 years later due to his domestic weaponised incompetence. The choice to keep people nameless is unfortunate, as not only do they lack names, they also lack character.

The plot of the show is nothing new: boy and girl have a passionate love affair, cohabitation reveals the flaws in their relationship, the boy is incompetent at everything and is revealed to be nothing but a grown toddler. Ultimately, they break up. However, what is unique here is the audience participation. Throughout the entire show, the character picks random people in the audience to be her boyfriend. This leads to some hilariously unscripted moments and helps to keep an element of spontaneity in a show that is very predictable at times.

However, the uniqueness of the audience participation does wear thin and can feel uncomfortable. Oftentimes, we’re left to wonder if we are laughing with the audience member or at them. The audience's participation feels harmless and small at first, though eventually things start to get a bit targeted when the main character asks an audience member to come up and put the dishwasher on. Of course, the dishwasher is not on stage, and so we watch as someone comes up and searches for a dishwasher for what feels like a really long time. Everyone is laughing when the main character eventually gets upset and asks them to sit back down. There is also a bit at the end where an audience member has to eat some rice, and in this instance, the audience member did not want to do it. However, the character made them do it anyway, which felt really uncomfortable. While this occasionally seems all fun and games, ultimately, the feeling we’re left with is a bit of audience humiliation. It seems risky and a bit unfair to leave all the meaningfulness of the story in the audience participation element.

The main issues with this show are the pacing and lack of meaningful commentary or reflection. The pacing is odd in that we start out at the end and then rewind to the beginning of the relationship. However, we know that the biggest plot point will be when they are officially together, so it’s not clear why we spend so much time on the beginning of the relationship. The descriptive nature of this show means that a lot of things are told and never shown. Which in live theatre, feels very much a waste. And after spending so much time on the beginning part of the relationship, the problems during their cohabitation feel sped up. And this is where the meaningful reflection is missing. Because when you tell a story this generic, what is missing is your thoughts. Never mind that the boyfriend made you bake your own cookies on your birthday or even bought you a cake that could kill you. How does his consistent incompetence make you feel?

This kind of reflection is not addressed, because with this narrative and with how the play is written, all we do is bounce from event to event. And with a one-person play, it is hard to keep people’s attention that way. This is probably why the show relies so heavily on audience participation - to help keep people engaged. However, it’s extremely disappointing that the show relies so heavily on this and not on the value of its own script or even stagecraft.

While this show may resonate with audience members from a female and possibly feminist perspective (almost every female in a heterosexual relationship knows about the mental load), the show adds little else to the conversation about weaponised incompetence other than to simply show us what it looks like. Everything felt vague and cliche, and it would with something as generic as this.

★★★☆☆ (3*)

Gifted tickets in return for an honest review

[this review has been edited requested at the request of those involved in the show]