Slippery – Omnibus Theatre, Clapham

Writer: Louis Emmitt-Stern
Director: Matthew Iliffe

Reviewer: Christine Stanton

“Impressively Authentic”

4.5 / 5

~This review was originally written for The Reviews Hub~

Jude and Kyle haven’t seen each other for ten years. Their complicated breakup was messy, fuelled by shared addictions and a cycle neither of them could break – leaving Jude feeling abandoned and Kyle determined to disappear and start over. But now it’s 3am and they’re in Jude’s flat making spaghetti with a side of emotionally charged small talk as they catch up on the last decade they’ve missed.

The only reason Kyle (Perry Williams) is even there is because he was unexpectedly put down as Jude’s (John McCrea) emergency contact after a trip to A&E, but despite his turn at being a good Samaritan, it’s not long before conversations turn to their shared history and unresolved uncoupling. On the surface, they’re both doing well(ish), Jude has an important job with a fancy apartment in Canary Wharf, and Kyle has finally had his illustrations published. But despite their successes, Jude is grieving the loss of his partner, Kyle is struggling to make a decision about his future, and their shared history is sizzling with romantic tension and unresolved resentment.

Louis Emmitt-Stern’s naturalistic dialogue is absolutely superb. In the 80 minute runtime, with one sole ongoing scene, the audience are voyeurs to the charged conversation between Jude and Kyle. Slowly, parts of the puzzle unravel; why they broke up, what’s happening with their lives and where they go from here. But crucially, not everything is neatly delivered and explored as would normally be done in a script. Jude’s grief is only briefly touched on, the accident is referenced but never abundantly clear, and Kyle’s headspace is skirted around but a little up in the air. With less confident writing, this would result in plot holes and frustration, but at Emmitt-Stern’s hand it adds brilliant intrigue and a level of authenticity that is hard to pull off. The audience aren’t watching a constructed play – they’re watching what feels like a genuine conversation between two ex-partners.

McCrea is electric as the snarky, but pained Jude, his snippy, exasperated retorts bringing a LOT of humour to the dialogue, while equally deftly, and impressively delivering a mask of covered emotion, occasionally letting the audience see it slip, but stoically reapplying to keep his walls guarded. Williams is the more measured of the pair, concerned and thoughtful as he navigates conversations around the old ground the pair clearly had many past conversations about. The chemistry between them is constantly simmering just as much as the spaghetti being cooked on stage, with frustration, tension, lust and confusion all being played out with brilliant realism from the pair.

Hannah Schmidt’s set design of a swanky, show-home style apartment helps to ground the realistic atmosphere even further. The actors are able to smoothly wander around the kitchen-living room area, grabbing stuff from cupboards or occasionally wandering off to another room, these small levels of detail and interaction with the set further drawing the audience in as flies on the wall. Intimate and intriguing, this is a strong show that completely hooks you and makes you want more.

Runs until 11th April 2026