Nerve

The dating game. Not always a game. A dance?

IKAG’s production of Nerve at the Elephant British Pub is certainly metaphorically an interesting dance between two people on a first date. A two hander, presented in the upstairs function area of the pub, Nerve is a bold and unusual piece. Cleverly, it utilises the actual pub as the ‘set’ for the play, a soundscape of pub music, and drinks provided from the bar.

We meet Elliot and Susan, who get together in a pub through online dating and have just returned from seeing a Michael Moore film. They have been corresponding by email prior to the date. At first glance, these two seem, on the surface, to be functioning human beings, but as the play unfolds, their idiosyncrasies, quirks and in some cases, deepest secrets come to the surface.

Elliot, played by Tom Gentry, is nervous about the date, bringing immediately into the conversation a discussion about how the first kiss can be the ‘clincher’. He is awkward and makes many faux pas against Susan’s (Katherine Silbereisen’s) apparent strength. He blabbers ridiculous lines like “I thought you’d sound like your emails”. This initial interaction immediately raises the question – what IS appropriate conversation on a first date? An interesting comment is made that a date is the battle between creating some tension and creating too much tension.

The play swings back and forth with various reveals - Susan has a knife in her bag, Elliot makes puppets, Susan self harms, Elliot speaks of when he was in jail, Susan works in a place that makes penile implants, and so on.

There is a powerplay in this script, whereby the initially confident Susan unravels her story to reveal mental illness and borderline personality disorder and Elliot shows us that he likes to control. He creates puppet worlds so he can do this and immediately wants to ‘have’ Susan- proclaiming his love for her very early in the play.

This is a very complicated script and in places, quite wordy. Despite some spectacular acting by both actors it is difficult to remain focused for the entire two hours of the show. The soundscape of local music, whilst excellent, had many vocal parts and this made it difficult to hear some of the spoken words in the play.

While in places quite disturbing, Nerve will certainly resonate with all who have been on the dating roundabout. It highlights that we are all flawed; that seeking the perfect mate is impossible.

There are some very clever moments- one in particular is the comment that in having a mental illness, Susan is dealing with the ‘dancers in her head’. Interestingly, in between scenes, she performs the dances she creates that mirror her thoughts.  

Use of lighting is excellent, various colours portraying emotions or breaks from the main conversation flow.

The script explores love and our need to be wanted and its title comes from a Paul Simon song, “Look at that” which says, ‘Ask somebody to love you; Takes a lot of nerve; Ask somebody to love you; You got a lot of nerve.’

It takes a lot of nerve to bare your soul to another on the internet dating roundabout. Nerve takes us on a ride through rising and falling emotions. At times we walk on eggshells, other times we are shocked and at other times we can see our own vulnerabilities.

It also takes nerve to mount a play like this. The acting and direction is impressive and the concept very clever. A very commendable effort by IKAG productions.

Shelley Hampton