All Fall; All Falling

Haven't you ever thought that waiting for a bus that doesn't come is a bit like Waiting for Godot? Liar, one of the series of eight plays which make up All Fall; All Falling, tries to make the most of this similarity and places two agitated characters on a bus stop, where through their interaction, we learn just a little of what it is that bothers them so much.

Like most of the plays in the series, Liar is only a half-hour long, so the little we know about the characters is very little indeed. In fact, one of the unfortunate bus-catchers speaks only half-a-dozen times, just enough to imply that he has lost everything but his last two cigarettes.

There is a very heavy scent of Beckett hanging around Liar, but it is not done at all badly, and the two actors conjure vividly their own distinct brands of lonliness and agitation. Still, it remains derivative, and all the audience are given is a scene from a play, not the whole works. Nonetheless, if you don't expect too much (like, for example, a full-size play), the pieces in this series can provide you with an enjoyable early evening distraction.