Barcelona

Duke of York’s Theatre   |  ★★★✩✩

You know how laughing when being tickled is no proof that you are happy or enjoying it? Well, the same is true of stories about dead children. The tears they induce are often little more than reflex.

Lily Collins as Irene Photo: Marc Brenner

As a dramatic device it has to be earned. The absence of a child in Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? for instance is only revealed after much heavy lifting, dramatically speaking. In this two-hander by the accomplished American playwright Bess Wohl (who should know better) the twist arrives after drunk American Irene, played by Emily In Paris star Lily Collins, has an hour or more of sparky exchanges with tall, dark and handsome Manuel (Álvaro Morte) who has taken her back to his Barcelona pad after meeting her at the bar where she was celebrating a hen night.

The two are constantly on the verge of getting into bed until, much to Manuel’s frustration, Irene’s hesitation is revealed to be a reluctance because she is engaged to Tod, the son of a preacher man back in Texas.

In her stage debut Collins acquits herself well. Her Irene is a livewire of nervous energy that Manuel’s calm charisma cannot soothe. The will-they-or-won’t-they tension becomes subsumed in banter about geopolitics (the arrogance of American power) and life choices.

Irene detects something strange about the oddly girlish décor in the flat while Manuel sees in Irene an unhappiness that can only be fixed by breaking off her engagement. This terrifying prospect shows that Manuel has little understanding of the “wedding industrial complex”, says Lily – a line worthy of Neil Simon.

However, despite the play’s short running time the spark in Wohl’s dialogue is not sustained and nor are the energy levels of Lynette Linton’s production. When grief is revealed to be the thing that weighs heavily on Manuel’s heart the entertaining first act is too flimsy to support the heft of second.

Álvaro Morte as Manuel Photo: Marc Brenner

Still, if the purpose of the production is to show that Collins can carry a play and has the acting chops to fill a stage (not to mention an auditorium with Emily in Paris fans) then this show is fit for purpose.

True, tears may well flow. But as is so often the case when it comes to stories of child death they are accompanied by resentment for being manipulated into feeling pain. A kick in the shins is just as effective.