Snakes and Ladders is a Losing Game – Rosemary Branch Theatre, Islington (Camden Fringe)

Writer & Director: Benedict Esdale

Reviewer: Christine Stanton

“Interesting Concept“

2.5 / 5

Sarah and her girlfriend Alice are going through a rough patch, deciding to undergo couples counselling to repair the cracks in their relationship. But currently they can’t stand to be in the same room as each other, so Sarah enlists her ex-boyfriend Jack to step in and take Alice’s place on the weekly board game therapy that’s been assigned to them.  

Much like a game of snakes and ladders there is a lot of ups and downs between Sarah (Casey-Taylor Williams) and Jack (River Norris) throughout the short 60-minute runtime. The pair argue a lot, helpfully explaining the demise of their original relationship, from small bickers about how to start a puzzle to bigger blow ups about their feelings for each other. But each argument is quite quickly resolved, an inside reference or off the cuff joke helping them to forget and move on, although never fully resolving the issue at hand. Alice is mentioned a lot in passing, but it’s never fully explained why their relationship is so tumultuous, nor is the timeline of when Alice (who also dated Jack) started a relationship with Sarah. It’s a messy love triangle, that could do with some context to help establish each of the characters a little bit better.  

Each scene is a new week, with a new board game to tackle – but their arguments and conversation cycle seem to repeat each week. They begin with Jack putting his all into each game, Sarah brushing it off as rubbish, finding the flaws in the gameplay itself, which then spirals on to them arguing about Alice and why Jack’s doing the therapy with Sarah rather than her. It’s a very shouty show – and while some integral points about their lives are raised – such as the stifling feeling of a small town and the frustration of not being able to afford a house, there aren’t many other reveals that help contextualise their relationships or personalities. Benedict Esdale’s choice of board games is a clever way to bookend the problems in a relationship – Scrabble for communication while their game of chess captures both strategy and the need to be attentive to your partner to understand what lies ahead.  

Both of the characters are purposefully very unlikeable – Sarah is short-tempered and argumentative; Jack is toxic and manipulative. Only their flaws are shown to highlight the chasm between them as they drift both closer and further apart each week. Norris and Taylor-Williams capture the red flag chemistry well, and aside from some confusing dialogue about how the board game therapy was initially introduced, it’s a realistic portrayal of unsuccessful relationships.  

In many ways, relationships themselves can have dynamics like a board game, so this is an apt metaphor for a partnership and an intriguing concept, that just needs another roll of the dice to sharpen some of the storyline and add a bit more context to the characters.  

Runs Until 7^th August 2024