Ooh felt so good to be back in a theatre on Monday and in the presence of such talent – Kelly Gough’s performance – wow and Phoebe Eclair-Powell’s writing which pushes the term dark comedy to another level (in the best way). 

HARM tells the story of an unnamed estate agent. From the opening line, we are thrust into the four walls of her London flat where she confesses to watching pigeons having sex on her windowsill for “a little too long sometimes… trying to remember that feeling”. When a dream house listing whizzes onto the market, she unwillingly trawls various potential buyers around the property until one viewer stops her in her tracks. Alice.  

Kelly Gough gives a truly incredible performance – her tortured, troubled expression sears through her one-liners and her strained smile throughout. There is both authority and vulnerability to her as she moves around the space often manipulating her body into various positions, crouching, perching, stooping – none of her stances ever put us at ease. She is brilliantly convincing – I could go on and on but I wont, instead I’m just gonna tell you to go see for yourself! 

HARM is an intense piece, one that doesn’t let you look away even though you might want to. A play about what can happen when intrigue becomes obsession and how social media disturbingly assists such fixations when in a susceptible but punishing pair of hands. Definitely gonna be thinking about this one for a while.  

It’s running until 26^th June at the Bush Theatre / tickets from £15/ 7:30pm. Thanks to Bush Theatre for welcoming us back with open (social distanced) arms.