Written by Kieron Barry, SPY FOR SPY is a romantic love story with garnered 2023 rave reviews in London. Sobriquets like “A revelation (The London Times),” “Clever, funny, tragic (The Reviews Hub),” and “Gripping, brilliant (Lost in Theatreland)” don’t come easily. Author Barry is a Brit with an established and innovative reputation in England – a man born in Stratford-upon-Avon who probably caught the theater bug from one of the town’s most iconic playwrights of all time. Barry has fashioned his play with the concept that life and love can be shuffled and still mirror real life because our memories don’t occur in a linear fashion. As we all know, memories tend to pop up at unexpected times, perhaps due to a conscious trigger which stimulates our mind – or maybe something deeper and even unconscious that works the same way. With that in mind, SPY FOR SPY recounts the history of Molly’s and Sarah’s love story.
Meeghan Holaway and Andrea Flowers – Photo by Zoe Allen
But wait! This is the love story between two women. And this tale is not told in the typical “girl meets girl,” “girls fall in love,” “girls face a crisis,” “girls work out the kinks,” way. The play contains six scenes, each with its own little story and each with its own signature piece of music. To add to the excitement of discovery, 45 minutes before each performance audience members randomly determine the order of the scenes. After all, memory doesn’t follow a chronological timeline. Since there are 720 ways this could work out, each performance will almost certainly be different. Other than a consistent prologue and epilogue, the rest of the tale plays in snippets that can be cute, wacky, funny, quirky, poignant, and even tragic – or maybe all of the above at the same time. In 2024, SPY FOR SPY comes to Los Angeles at the Whitefire Theatre.
Meeghan Holaway and Andrea Flowers – Photo by Zoe Allen
Director Michael Massey helms the play with a sure hand – no small feat in that every performance will take a different path to its message. Neither is this is a picnic for the talented actors who must pull it off. Andrea Flowers (Molly) and Meeghan Holaway (Sarah) do a bang-up job of hip-hopping between shuffled memories while holding true to the essence of the story. For this is a play about the relationship between an uptight, conservative lawyer (Holaway) and a flaky, impractical dreamer (Molly) who have only one thing in common: their love. With humor and heartache, they embark on the journey that is their story. At the end of it all, questions remain: Do our lives make more sense in the wrong order? How potent are memories in defining our experiences?
Meeghan Holaway and Andrea Flowers – Photo by Zoe Allen
SPY FOR SPY runs through October 10, 2024, with performances at 8 p.m. on Thursdays. The Whitefire Theatre is located at 13500 Ventura Blvd., Sherman Oaks, CA 91423. Tickets are $24 through September 12 and $38 thereafter. For information and reservations, go online.
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