A knock at the door sounds like hammering with an anvil in this Silo Theatre production, but clever, compelling Belleville is really only playing dress-up as a thriller. Its taut, insightful portrait of a millennial marriage is the real element of interest here.
Beautiful neurotics Abby and Zack are undergoing their quarter-life crises in Paris - city of broken American dreams. Playwright Amy Herzog skilfully captures their claustrophobia, isolation and shifting power dynamics but also their attraction, recounting the relentless, infinite number of "new beginnings" in a challenging relationship. It feels real: the couple know the conversation subtext before the audience does; as they should, given they've been married five years.
Directed by Oliver Driver, both Sophie Henderson and Matt Whelan give committed, brilliant, absorbing performances, making us believe in the couple's long-term intimate familiarity. Under pressure, Zack's face tics ever so slightly.
Abby complains about the parental mantra that "it doesn't matter what you do, as long as you're happy" because she's "so tired of this pressure to be happy". But the play also disapproves of the mantra's encouragement of irresponsible infantilism - Abby and Zack break and take things, and expect to be immediately forgiven.
