For The Record ***

Nancy (Farrah Alice Black) and David (Felix Berendse) find themselves in a room together, with no recollection of how they arrived there.

They embark upon a tentative, strained, conversation. It transpires that Nancy’s last memory was of being in a hospital bed with her husband and daughter at her side. David’s last recollection is driving on a motorway, with fragments of an erratic driver and a tractor in his mind.

Although they appear to be youthful, both insist that they are in their 60’s. Gradually, the unsettling realisation that they may have deceased begins to take hold.

As recognition dawns, they realise that they were romantically involved forty years earlier. The reunion is marked by awkwardness and familiarity. Nancy’s description of a “break up” is at odds with David’s perspective, in which she simply left and proceeded to ghost him.

As the scene develops, puppets and apparitions appear at a portal. A record player and a crate of records are delivered to them, and the songs they choose become emotional touchstones, unlocking memoires of their relationship and the lives they led.

Beyond a brief generational kinship and shared geography, it’s easy to see why their relationship failed to endure. Nancy aspired to become a music journalist, while David fondly recalls discovering suits as one of the happiest moments of his life. Their incompatibility is laid bare.

Nancy went on to marry Stephen and was ostensibly settled and happily, yet they recall how David and Nancy had an unexpected, extemporaneous, sexual encounter at a party. David confessed the infidelity to his girlfriend with terminal consequences for that relationship, whereas Nancy opted for concealment and was never discovered. While David claims the moral high ground, his honesty amounts to a pyrrhic victory.

They appear to be stuck, unable to reconcile past differences, clearly in some form of purgatory, unless they can expiate – what exactly?

In the hope of continuing their journey, they begin to speak with greater honesty about each other, themselves, and the lives they chose.

This production of For The Record is charming and briskly paced. Black and Berendse successfully convey a couple who had genuine affection for each other, but deep down know that it was not destined to last. However, the emotional core of their relationship never fully lands. The script and staging restrict them somewhat and the suspicion remains that there is a more polished version of this production waiting to emerge.

The music selections punctuate the narrative effectively – especially Fleetwood Mac’s “The Chain”, whose themes of fracture, but lingering connection, feel apt.