Preview: Cold Water

The play isn’t polished or grand. It feels relatable, with a kind of fly-on-the-wall quality. What interests me is how much of its weight sits in the silences, in the subtext, and in what goes unsaid between two people. It feels honest in how we actually connect, or fail to, in real life. I also like that the play leaves space for the audience to notice the shifts and fill in the gaps for themselves.

It’s about how easy it is to stay still, the weight of choices we don’t make, and how much of ourselves we end up recognising in other people. It asks whether you have the courage to shape a life you want, or to admit to yourself what that even is. To me, it captures those growing pains that don’t only belong to adolescence, but resurface again and again in adulthood.

We meet Matt (Elliot Archer), a secondary school drama teacher in Harpenden, and Emma (Tess Eltringham), who’s found herself back at her old school working as an assistant teacher. Thirteen years apart, they share more than they’d like to admit – and in recognising each other’s shortcomings, they’re confronted with their own. That recognition is as magnetic as it is unsettling.

All cast sizes come with their own challenges, but with just two actors in the room I’ve found it takes a huge amount of focus and presence from them at all times, both in rehearsal and performance. It asks a lot, but the work is exciting because it lets us go so deep. Every shift and beat has to be carried by the same two people, and as a director, part of the challenge is finding shape and variation within that.

Sharp. Intimate. Restless.

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