REVIEW: GIRL OUT OF THE BLUE by Giles Cole at the Tabard Theatre 23 September to 10 October 2026
‘plays with expectations and identity, constantly shifting our understanding of relationships’ ★★★★
A middle-aged man who still finds himself very attractive walks into a bar to find a young woman who’s asked to meet him. She says he’s her father. From the first tonal shift as Doug adjusts to this unexpected situation, Girl Out Of The Blue plays with expectations and identity, constantly shifting our understanding of relationships between three characters whose past have been submerged and Abi, a girl (Miranda Braun) who wants to know who she is.
Doug (Jonathan Sidgwick) is a journalist, a jack-the-lad playboy who, even married with two teenage daughters, is still an eternal chancer. Maya (Seeta Indrani), his wife, wants nothing to do with the unexpected arrival of a new step-daughter into her well-ordered existence. Beth (Sarah Berger), the mother of Doug’s unknown daughter, has done all she can to keep him unknowing.
Giles Cole’s sharp, episodic play sets brief scenes in wine bars, outdoor spaces, homes as the older triangle navigate the new waters Abi’s decision to seek out her father has revealed. Abi herself (and Braun’s is the pick of the performances as a girl both confident and vulnerable) is never clear what she wants – a dad, a relationship with a man who was never a meaningful dad, just a sense of where she came from.
The play’s structure and dialogue sometimes feel televisual, with short scenes and some slightly awkward transitions between them and speeches in which characters say whatever is on their minds without much filler, suspense or subtext. But the power of the emerging relationship between father and daughter is the heart of the play as Doug and Abi move from suspicion and uncertainty to trust and comfort and back to something less easy as Abi finds out more about a father who left her mother for another woman he’d made pregnant and has other skeletons in a rather grubby closet.
Most scenes are duets, and the mother-daughter sequences between Berger and Braun touchingly find both their vulnerabilities in a warm if sometimes touchy relationship. Braun and Sidgwick combine brilliantly, too, his shiftiness and the ever-present hint of sleaze playing a significant role as she finds out more about him. The third pairing, of Doug and Maya, works less well, with something of a mismatch of styles as Sidgwick plays Doug big and Indrani remains very understated even in her moments of biggest emotion; individually fine acting choices, but not collectively persuasive on why these two would ever have married at all.
Sound design is great, the simple set works well in creating multiple locations in a small space, and the show remains gripping throughout its fairly brief length.
Alexander Marshall and Close Quarter Productions in association with Holocener Ltd present:
GIRL OUT OF THE BLUE by Giles Cole at the Tabard Theatre 23 September to 10 October 2026.
Box Office: https://www.tabard.org.uk
Cast
Sarah Berger | Beth
Seeta Indrani | Maya
Jonathan Sidgwick | Doug
Miranda Braun | Abi
Creative Team
Alexander ‘Sandy’ Marshall | Producer
Holofcener Ltd | Co-producer
Close Quarter Productions | Producer
Jonas Cemm | Director
Giles Cole | Writer
Bethany Blake | Designer
William Godfree | Composer
Andrew Johnson | Sound Designer
Alexandra Kataigida | Production/Stage Manager
Reviewer David Weir writes The Westminster Mysteries novel series, including The Honourable Member for Murder and Motion for Murder. Plays include Confessional (Oran Mor, Glasgow), Murdering the Truth (Greenwich Theatre, London) and Better Together (Jack Studio, Brockley, London).
