{"id":1120230,"date":"2026-07-30T14:19:16","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T14:19:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1120230\/"},"modified":"2026-07-30T14:19:16","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T14:19:16","slug":"love-5-ways-omnibus-london","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1120230\/","title":{"rendered":"Love (5 Ways) \u2013 Omnibus, London"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Writer:<\/strong><strong> Sabah Kemp<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Directors: <\/strong><strong>Sophia Woolfenden and Freya Frank<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A packed studio, a staggered platform, a duvet that doubles as a shower curtain: the pizza barge of the billing never materialises, and it isn\u2019t missed. Cadillac Productions\u2019 two-hander needs only its performers to conjure a five-strong polycule mid-wedding party, and what might have been a seminar on \u2018ethical non-monogamy\u2019 proves to be warmer: a self-aware comedy confronting the realities of experimentation, jealousy and regret included.<\/p>\n<p>Lewis Grimshaw and Freya Frank carry four-odd characters apiece, switches signalled by voice and body alone, flashbacks by a shift of light. Grimshaw moults from Max \u2013 a proud, curious, newly promoted TK Maxx floor manager, who polygamised in haste and repents at leisure \u2013 into a succession of camp and posh boffins, one hopelessly enthralled by Frank\u2019s magnificently Sofia Vergara-grade girlfriend (\u201cthe last person to know my age is dead \u2013 and immigration control\u201d).<\/p>\n<p>She takes him to bed on discovering he is Cornish, her penchant for all things Cornwall remaining comically unexplained. The caricatures are broad \u2013 the camp, the Latin, the polyamorous themselves \u2013 and permitted, because the deprecation comes from inside the polycule: even \u201cethical non-monogamy\u201d arrives with its own raised eyebrow.<\/p>\n<p>The comic spine is a neat cruelty: Max talks Mila into the polycule against her warnings, she blossoms, and he curdles into jealousy that she predicted. His mid-crisis howl \u2013 \u201cPolygamy is all about talking and not about fucking, and nobody fucking told me\u201d \u2013 detonates the room, and earns it: polygamy here more admin than orgy. An unending negotiation about negotiations.<\/p>\n<p>Sabah Kemp excels in devising a piece with an appetite beyond its headcount. Yet Love (5 Ways), like its lovers, has commitment issues of its own. Two of Grimshaw\u2019s characters, Gracie and camp-as-Carr Rob, sit too close in countenance to track; Frank\u2019s red dress works against her male Reuben, and her quicker switches occasionally outpace the audience.<\/p>\n<p>The wordless interludes \u2013 bodies intertwined under dim purple light to stringed instrumentals \u2013 \u00a0hold the room silent, but sit oddly on a show whose native tongue is satire; likewise a closing poem (grain, requested from a butcher) that arrives too abruptly to land as the benediction it reaches for. But it\u2019s a joy to see Grimshaw\u2019s whiplash from a hard-done-by Max to the gloriously outrageous Rob; likewise for the contrast between Frank\u2019s stern Mila and American influencer-type exhibitionist, who\u2019d rather her totty boyfriend watch her than touch her.<\/p>\n<p>Slow to warm, then cackles galore: only Cadillac\u2019s second production, and already sharp enough for Edinburgh. More, as the polycule insists, the merrier.<\/p>\n<p><b>\u00a0Reviewed on 29 August and then at Edinburgh Fringe<\/b><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\tThe Reviews Hub Star Rating <\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t80%<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\tSlow to warm, then cackles galore<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Writer: Sabah Kemp Directors: Sophia Woolfenden and Freya Frank A packed studio, a staggered platform, a duvet that&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1120231,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[7757],"tags":[748,393,305153,4884,305154,257,305155,14921,6080,305156,305157,2764,16,15],"class_list":["post-1120230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-london","tag-britain","tag-england","tag-freya-frank","tag-great-britain","tag-lewis-grimshaw","tag-london","tag-love-5-ways","tag-omnibus","tag-review","tag-sabah-kemp","tag-sophia-woolfenden","tag-theatre","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/117009368117969605","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1120230","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1120230"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1120230\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1120231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1120230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1120230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1120230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}