The title of Let’s Not Argue is a bit of a misnomer; the two-hander, which combines aspects of physical theatre, dance and scripted dialogue, is entirely predicated on the uneasy push-pull between marital conflict and harmony, with a persistent emphasis upon the former.

The performance, directed by Mike Friend, moves through a series of vignettes that lean, varyingly, on dialogue and stylised movement, the latter of which has been workshopped and choreographed by London-based Neil Fisher and local dance legend Fleur de Thier.

Actors (and married couple) Lizzie Tollemache and David Ladderman, who here play wife and husband, have performed together extensively, including through their work as theatre and entertainment company Rollicking Entertainment, and this lends their on-stage relationship an easy intimacy. They are, as always, engaging and confident performers.

Many of these scenes weave through and around a series of arguments (or, really, one big marriage-long ongoing argument of diffuse content and origin). These conflicts move between defined domestic spaces and into more abstract spaces bounded by light and shadow. They range from the banal to the horrendously personal, as the couple get angry, make up, make out, irritate one another, play-fight, cuddle and (more often than not) push gentle ribbing into sharp-tongued, unpleasantly personal shouting matches.

In parts, the combination of movement, music, set (Tony Geddes), and lighting (Michael Carlton) gives the show an air of cinematic montage; we see the characters move through time in a manner that, by my reading, emphasises how persistently rocky their relationship is, given the focus upon conflict and not resolution.

I have a real and deep-seated fondness for the prior work of the creative team and performers, who between them have an extraordinarily diverse skill set that includes circus theatre, contemporary dance, contemporary sideshow and variety acts, physical comedy, children’s theatre, literary adaptations, and so on. This show, though, defies a coherent reading, although its origins – as an international collaboration between Kiwi and UK artists, and as the combination of an initially straight theatre piece and a piece involving intimate, domestic storytelling through movement and dance – are quite compelling.

I can’t figure this out though. There’s not enough of an arc to support a sense of narrative; the couple aren’t defined enough for it to be a character piece; there’s not enough light and shade to shape a clear, intentional relationship between the comedy and the discomfort; the movement and dialogue operate at quite different registers; it’s not lyrical or expressionistic enough to act as a tonal piece, nor is it physically precise enough to read as dance theatre.

I am unsure if it is unfinished, or if the piece just doesn’t really know what it is yet. I keep trying to find a way in, to get my hooks in somehow, but don’t really succeed – although many of the people around me are genuinely delighted by some aspects, such as when we see the couple ‘negotiating’ who gets the bedsheets, even if the piece’s abrupt ending takes everyone a bit by surprise.

While it’s quite clearly marketed as a light-hearted romp – cups of tea, funny moments, bickering, and “every relationship’s untold story” – Let’s Not Argue reads to me more like the anatomy of a dysfunctional relationship that is locked into a toxic, claustrophobic and isolating cycle of fighting and fucking. I must admit that I leave feeling quite sad. 

There is one particular vignette, though, that highlights the potential of the show. The husband and wife sit at the breakfast table in a state of silent, simmering passive aggression. They shunt the cups, bowls, coffee and cereal around the table’s surface using strong, almost geometric gestures that incorporate a series of pointed microaggressions: screwing the milk lid on too tightly, pointedly licking the spoon before sticking it back in the sugar bowl, pinching someone else’s food. This scene combines well-drawn character work and firm, precise movement in a manner that is quite decisive, and it demonstrates a clarity and a point of view that is not yet fully realised elsewhere.

I do hope that this show sees further development so that it can figure out the story it wants to tell and, in doing so, better reflect the undeniable talents of the cast and creative team.

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