No Second Bite – Liverpool Lantern Theatre

So it’s a girls night in for Bella and Angie. Two single ladies with a single pizza, lots of booze and lots of regrets about missing out on motherhood.

They’ve both been hatching plans of insemination but time is rapidly running out.  It seems there is no second bite – of neither pizza or pregnancy.

It doesn’t help, of course, that they both appear to be men haters. Angie (played by Charlie Griffiths) opts for a string of one night stands whilst Bella (Lynne Fitzgerald) has designs on a gay man with a turkey baster.

Hilarity ensues as expectations diminish. Angie’s date is late and then turns out not to be quite as straight as she was hoping and all the wrong people end up getting off with each other.

One of the funniest scenes for me was the moment Angie lays back to “think of England” after deciding Bella’s gay friend with the turkey baster might be the best option after all!

Jaiden Micheal’s portrayal of “The Inseminator” was impressive and very funny, especially when you consider it was his first professional theatre role since cutting his thespian teeth in Channel 4’s controversial reality show Desperate Scousewives back in 2012. His performance blended faultlessly alongside his two experienced co stars, Lynne Fitzgerald and Charlie Griffiths, who can both boast a long list of theatre, film and TV credits.

As the play progressed, Lynne and Charlie’s drunken scenes were so hilariously funny you found yourself wondering whether someone might have substituted the cold tea, Ribena and lemonade for the “real thing” in all those bottles that littered the set!

Another two actors making their professional stage debut were 21 year old Nadia Bakir who is currently in her third year of a drama course at John Moores University and Liam Dawson, 20.

Jordan Stuel-White added yet another dimension to the play, as the girls’ landlord of undeterminable sexuality, drifting in and out of the scenes with an air of camp mystery.

No Second Bite is a rib-tickling comedy that is well worth seeing. I’m sure it will go on to be performed at larger theatres throughout the land but there was something special about witnessing its premier in this charming little fringe venue in Liverpool’s Blundell Street.  I urge you to do the same. It is running at The Lantern Theatre until Sunday 26th April and tickets are just £10.50 from the venue’s website. (click here)