Review: MEAT CUTE, The Other Palace

Turning 30 has always been portrayed by the media as a dead end, especially for women. Say goodbye to the ingénue, you need to have your life together now. Meg Travers and Laura Kirman think about it differently. They put on a romp of a show, a relatable two-hander that celebrates womanhood and all the nightmares that come with becoming a fully fledged adult. It’s genuine, no-filter, all-female, thought-provoking fun. Directed by Nancy Zamit, Kirman and Travers introduce two characters you want to be friends with.

They sit on opposite sides of the 30-year-old spectrum: one is just coming out of a brutal divorce, the other is happily married with a baby on the way. A fortuitous meet-cute in a public toilet at a mutual acquaintance’s hen-do later, the pair are bonded forever. From awkward encounters at the sexual health clinic to outlandish interactions with strangers, their separate monologues interweave and meet in the middle to paint a lifelike picture of the variety of the female experience.

It’s chaotic in the best way. The grimly realistic vignettes are filled with a collection of explosive characters (Kirman takes the cake as the horny am-dram loving nurse). Their flawless comic chemistry highlights the colloquial naturalism of their writing, which is never forced, even at its most outrageous or humorous. The script includes many liberating junctures that validate the fears of millennial women everywhere (think Fleabag, but more wholesome).

But Travers and Kirman’s cleverness lies in the pitch-perfect tonal quality of their work. Beyond all the jokes and recurring bits lies a loamy series of hard-hitting reflections. These moments of profound revelation arrest the action and add pace to the narrative, balancing the rhythm of their storytelling. Between oversharing and laughing at themselves, the duo breaks the stigma of postpartum depression while addressing the loneliness of being the only single person in your friend group. It’s all done with beautiful empathy.

Even though it touches upon many subjects, all of urgent relevance to an extent, the piece is about the importance of female friendship. Showing up for each other becomes the invisible protagonist of the story, while the real villain is societal expectation. It’s funny and touching and utterly endearing. We truly hope its life doesn’t end at The Other Palace.