On Saturday we were back at the Kiln Theatre in Kilburn to see 'Table 17' - a play by Douglas Lyons that has been a big hit in New York and Los Angeles. It's a great piece of fringe theatre for three actors that requires no set other than a dining table and chairs. Former fiancees Jada and Dallas are meeting for dinner at their favourite restaurant, two years after splitting up. We see them each preparing for their reunion and then, through flashbacks, learn how they originally met, fell in love and the reasons for their split. An announcement at the beginning of Zhailon Levingston's excellent production for Kiln Theatre encourages the audience to engage with the play "like a panto". Despite my reservations, this worked really well, with members of the audience expressing out loud their surprise, shock and anger at each plot revelation, the actors very effectively improvising in response to comments from the audience (always scrupulously in character) and the audience almost becoming another character in the drama. Amy Jane Cook's set makes great use of a revolving horseshoe-shaped banquette to evoke the restaurant and a host of other settings. And the acting is superb: Marisha Wallace as Jada, Jamael Westman as Dallas and Michael Rishawn as everyone else show us characters who are flawed but sympathetic and charming. 'Table 17' is a very clever, hip, smart play which went down a storm in the sold-out theatre.
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