Slow Violence. The Pleasance Theatre.

“You’re one step away from a brighter day” is the marketing slogan of floundering travel agency Happy Holidays. It is a hyped up sham of course. No one in absurdist comedy Slow Violence is happy. Not the agency’s clients, whose beach resorts are on fire and whose cruises are being cancelled because the rivers have run dry. Certainly not employees Claire (Laura Ryder) and Peter (Harry Kingscott) who have to deal with a daily litany of woe in the form of filthy tap water, leaking office roof, heating system gone haywire, and dodgy electricity supply. Boss Karen has gone missing, and the office plants are dying. Worse, Sandra’s flooded out team from six floors below are demanding to be let in. It is only the mysterious people “upstairs”, apparently protected from the unfolding chaos around them, who seem the least bit content.

All this of course is a metaphor for the climate crisis, or more specifically for the failure of those with power to respond to our collapsing environment and the needs of the developing world. Lonely, scheming, perma-grinning Claire secretly knows the office, the only life she really has, is falling apart. But instead of doing something about the chaos unfolding around her she tells herself to “be the rainbow”, look on the bright side, and focus on that promotion she is never going to get. Besides, she exclaims, beaming and stroking her hair in quiet despair, all this madness is a good opportunity to sell travel insurance. Gawky, unenthusiastic new employee Peter, who seems to visibly shrink into his suit as the hour unfolds, initially demands change. But faced with endless equivocations from upstairs and from the over-friendly Claire, the new member of staff finds himself powerless to act. Is it too late for these two to change things at Happy Holidays?

Ryder and Kingscott, who also write and direct, have an easy chemistry and a knack for physical comedy that makes Slow Violence a watchable enough two-hander. Their theme, the refusal of those in power in the west to tackle the global heating head on, is one that is worth listening to. What is perhaps lacking in the execution is much of a satirical bite. The tone is more soothing office sitcom than fierce parody. It is more Friends than The Office. That may be deliberate, but somehow the show’s sheer gentleness feels strangely at odds with the urgency of the topic.

Writers & Directors: Laura Ryder & Harry Kingscott