Nearly defeated by several police diversions on the A12, I made it to the Seagull in Lowestoft just in the nick of time. This brilliant, innovative piece of theatre had just started. In this two hander, our lovers have just met, it would seem, and they thankfully are at that moment when they don’t seem to notice anyone but each other…

Single Shoe Theatre’s “Crazy Glue” takes Etgar Keret’s short story of the same name and transforms its ideas into 70 minutes of physical, absurd, hilarious and heart breaking tragicomedy. It is important to note that there are no real words spoken throughout, but the story is clear: A Man and woman meet; they fall in love; they marry; real life crashes in upon their world.

The physical comedy is like a dance and it evokes the earliest silent movies with the soundtrack provided by the classic early 20th Century popular music song book and by the actors themselves. It all feels nostalgic and warm, recognisably Hollywood in its conventions of love and romance: he wipes her spectacles to help her see; she preserves their memories in a photo album.

The choreography is sharp and the and chemistry between our two lovers produces performances that are delightful, skilful and mesmerising.

The Crazy Glue itself is real and is the stuff that binds our lovers together. At the start we can see it in the form of memories and later as a salve in a desperate attempt to fix their damaged love. Love hurts and you can see it. As the darker moments emerge, without words, the physicality of their relationship becomes unbearable and unbearably funny. There is no hiding from the truth here and the cartoonish violence presents exaggerated moments of real pathos where we finally don’t know whether to laugh or not.

This show was an absolute delight and clearly part of an exciting and varied programme of events this year at the Seagull. I’ll be back!

Jackie Montague