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Are they besties, housemates or more than that? Lara Ciulli and Riana White keep the audience guessing in a gripping hour of comedy
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Stage — Brian Logan
Fifteen years ago in this room, I remember the thrill of encountering Lizzie and Sarah Daykin’s duo Toby , which complicated the double-act dynamic with highly charged, is-it-real sibling rivalry. I felt the thrills again with this two-hander featuring Lara Ciulli and Riana White, which refracts sketch comedy (and dance, and confessional) through the lens of queer female friendship. Who knows whether Ciulli and White are lifelong besties, housemates, sometimes-almost lovers? But they defy you to believe otherwise, in a gripping and slippery hour that splays their intimacy, codependency, mutual resentment and few-holds-barred humour across the stage.
In a show with a major movement component – they spend much of it all over one another – Those People begins with a mime, of two women crashing their car into a lake, then one rescuing the other. Being one another’s salvation is the subtext of much that follows, as we dip in and out of the malfunctioning relationships in their pasts: the partner who insisted on showing Ciulli his favourite porn scene; the ex who refused to return White’s Calvin Kleins. The latter abstracts into an underwear fever dream, then into a naked breakdance by scene-stealing Ciulli. “You’re being selfish,” protests Riana, stepping out of the show. “OK, and you’re being insecure,” retorts Lara.
The bickering feels close to the bone; proximity to real life and its complexities (is this a friendship? Is it a romance?) is the draw here. So too is Ciulli’s charisma and self-delighted flirting with the audience, which is grounded, and just about tolerated, by White.
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The Wuthering Heights mickey-take is fun, but ancillary to the main event. A filmed ending feels a bit grafted on, and not only because it’s shot against London rather than Edinburgh backdrops. It’s lovely to look at, mind you: often the pleasure here – when the particular meaning of a sequence escapes your grasp – is in the striking stage-pictures, the lack of filter, the rawness of the confused passion on display. An arresting debut.
• At Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh , until 30 August
In a show with a major movement component – they spend much of it all over one another – Those People begins with a mime, of two women crashing their car into a lake, then one rescuing the other. Being one another’s salvation is the subtext of much that follows, as we dip in and out of the malfunctioning relationships in their pasts: the partner who insisted on showing Ciulli his favourite porn scene; the ex who refused to return White’s Calvin Kleins. The latter abstracts into an underwear fever dream, then into a naked breakdance by scene-stealing Ciulli. “You’re being selfish,” protests Riana, stepping out of the show. “OK, and you’re being insecure,” retorts Lara.
This report is published with credit to theguardian.com. Full available text from the wire is above. Read on theguardian.com →
Source: theguardian.com · Brian Logan. Published 24 Aug 2026, 08:00 am.
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