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The Toilet Gallery, Kingston

Missing Out was specifically written and devised to be performed in The Toilet Gallery, Kingston. The production comprised a 1-hour performance in the evening and an art installation during the day which could be visited Wednesday - Sunday for 4 weeks.

The story revolved around the character of Edmund, a man hurt by the women in his life and therefore hiding in the one place he knows no woman would look for him - a Ladies lavatory. During the lonely time in his cubicle he whiles away the hours convincing himself that all women are a waste of space - a headache that he can simply do without and this is reinforced as he listens in on the numerous confessions from half-drunk chatterboxes who visit the lavatory to get away from a party in the room next door.
 
But one night it's different - the host, Jenny, doesn't seem to have any friends even though she claims to, as the only person who shows up to her birthday party in this acclaimed trendy club is sad and lonely Sylvia who is expecting to meet a blind date that evening - quite a new experience for her. Jenny enjoys tormenting her pathetic 'friend' so as to distract herself from the fact that she has no others, and Sylvia, although patient enough to gloss over Jenny's jibes is finally broken when her unknown sweetheart and much hoped-for-future-husband doesn't show up. Praying in a cubicle and within earshot of Edmund, we finally hear some sincere sorrow, fear, hopelessness and innocence.

Moved by this genuine emotion, Edmund counsels her from the next door cubicle, posing as Claire, an unseen friend of Jenny's who adds to his disguise not only a badly concealed Monty-Python-style voice, but shaved legs and high heels which he has donned to mislead those prying under his cubicle door.

But the friendship doesn't last long, as mysteriously Claire disappears the next time Jenny enters the loo, never to be heard of again. The story ends sadly but realistically, seeing Sylvia run out in a fit of despair, Jenny pass out in a pool of her own vomit and Edmund, almost...almost leave the lavatory to run after Sylvia and rescue her. Unfortunately for him and for us, opening the door to the outside world is as far as he gets.
CAST
Edmund - Corin Rhys Jones
Sylvia - Lydia Fraser-Ward
Jenny - Tamara von Werthern
TECHNICAL
Lighting - Jennifer Jimenez
Sound - Mercedes Maresca
Photography - Christian Schmermer
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