Review: ONE KISS, Belgrade Theatre Coventry

Photo credit: Andrew Moore

If you’re looking for a one-woman show that celebrates the highs and lows of being a woman, then One Kiss is the show you’re looking for.

With a live band consisting of Alicia Gardener-Trejo and Piera Onacko, and an original score, Lara J. West writes and performs this story of memories and what might have been.

An old library book, What it Means to be a Woman, is the connection between three women’s lives as they journey from childhood to motherhood, to distant memories, revealing the choices they make and the chances they missed.

Directed by Sarah Stacey, with design by Kerry Bradley, we are taken through stories of best friends, lovers, miscarriage, domestic abuse, family betrayal, menopause and the ‘what might have been’.

West is sometimes light hearted and sometimes reflective in her story telling, yet always truthful and with an honesty most women will be able to relate to. It has the feel of collective appreciation and understanding of the female audience and the lightbulb moment of ‘what could my life have been, if only I’d taken that other path’.

The use of real women’s testimonies interspersed with the on-stage storytelling only adds to the reality that as a collective, women have discovered themselves in the same ways for forever and will continue to do so.

We realise that being a woman is a constant journey of learning and self-discovery and that is why it is so great to be a female of the species!

Warming realisation, painful memories and an observation of the feminine.

**** Four stars

Reviewed by: Rachel Louise Martin

One Kiss plays at the Belgrade Theatre, Coventry until 9 July, with tickets available here.