REVIEW: ONE WHOLE NIGHT by Ana-Maria Bamberger at White Bear Theatre 21 Nov – 2 Dec 2023

‘a pleasant evening’ ★★★

One Whole Night by Ana-Maria Bamberger is an agreeably old-fashioned three act comedy-drama that features a woman Of A Certain Age, desolate because her lover has traded her in for a younger model, crying on a couch. She calls for a doctor in her despair, and after a few hours of heartbreak, one turns up. He appears to be a surgeon moonlighting as a G.P. They went out together at school and there is a lot of flirtatious taking of her pulse, leading to a flurry of encounters and mis-read signals and embarrassment and suchlike, until finally the woman is abandoned again, heartbroken and crying on the couch again, and finally turning the whole story into a play which may very well be the play we’ve just seen.

It’s quite cute, very competently played, has a number of laughs, doesn’t make the unlikely coincidences that abound too hard to swallow, but it really doesn’t do any more than make for a pleasant evening in a theatre. Tracey Ann Wood gives a good Abandoned Actress, and Charlie Buckland makes effective use of his eyebrows when the misunderstandings pile around his ankles like snow in Siberia. It’s funny. It’s done well. What more do you want?

Photography: Rebecca Rayne

Over Here Theatre Company and Magus Theatre Productions presents

ONE WHOLE NIGHT

By Ana-Maria Bamberger

Directed by Lydia Parker

The White Bear Theatre

21 November – 2 December 2023

Box Office: https://www.whitebeartheatre.co.uk/whatson/one-whole-night

Cast: Tracey Ann Wood as “Marisa” and Charlie Buckland as “Victor”

Reviewed by Chris Lilly