Review: Square Peg

Simeon Morris talks about crisis as an awakening in a play about love, loss and leather handbags. Confronting the reasons behind his futile attempts to be loved, he’s finally ready to make the best out of life as his true self.  

Never quite fitting in, Morris has always been looking for something. Love, approval and intimacy have alluded him, and as he grows older and increasingly irrelevant, he finds himself in the middle of an existential crisis. What is the point of it all?

Square Peg is the exploration of an adult man’s life plagued by childhood trauma, as well as his passion for dressmaking, creativity and poetry. Searching for love in the wrong places – drink, drugs and sex – Morris has never been able to find peace, but he’s getting closer. He’s had a lot of therapy, to varying degrees of success (his favourite is EMDR), and although he doesn’t have all the answers, he’s ready to be vulnerable and offer his authentic voice to the world.

Morris recites poetry at some points, but most of the time it’s like he’s not performing at all. He looks the audience in the eye, eliciting nods and sounds of agreement, and speaks in a casual tone of voice. Square Peg may not be groundbreaking in a literary sense, but Morris unflinching honesty is engaging and his message is one of hope.