Review: Ebb and Flow, The Rondo, Bath – ‘A tender, lyrical, beautiful hour’

This year’s Rondo intern show – new professional theatre, packed full of emerging talent – lays before its audience a tender, lyrical, beautiful hour.

Writer Gabrielle Finnegan has a poet’s ear – not only for language, but for the songs of the soul. This play is a thing of beauty and deserves to reach wider audiences after this short week at Bath’s leading indie venue (in trendy city-village, Larkhall).

Lovers Eb (Stephanie Walsh) and Flo (Rhiannon Don) have achieved the near-miraculous and bought a home together. For Flo, who grew up in care, this means a chance to nest, to cuddle up, to show love and care in a safe space. For Eb, a home is a hub: a place to return to. Flo works in an old people’s care home; Eb, in hospitality. As their names suggest, while both are part of the same sea, their drives are fundamentally opposed, even when they are so alike.

It’s their first night in their home. Eb’s been at work and gone for drinks afterwards. Flo’s managed the move, and waited, alone, in a castle of packing boxes. Finnegan presents us with their surface – and then with their inner worlds; putting into language the tugging, muted sentiments we so often ‘hear’, but which too often only find expression in bodily suppression, dance, sex or violence.

And so the script moves between dialogue and inner-voice, creating a subtle rhythm (a true ebb and flow), which opens up the heart of this loving, but doomed, relationship.

As Eb, Walsh sweeps us along on her waves of emotions with real energy and heart. Meanwhile, Don’s Flo gives us a truly convincing ‘locked box’ of a woman initially struggling and then coming to terms with her uncomfortable feelings, only opening up when she makes her peace with reality.

Finnegan’s script has been artfully brought to life under the direction of the Rondo’s 2025-2026 intern director, Bryony Morgan, and their team. Louis Green’s movement direction is key to sinking us deeper us into the world of what goes unspoken between the women; Alex Latham’s light and Rich Canning’s set envelope their difficult evening in a Tempest-like magical ether.

And Juliet Moore’s gorgeous soundscape is truly exceptional, seamlessly pulling this world together with a level of artistry that reminds me of Jonny Greenwood. It’s very much worth noting, theatre-lovers and advocates, that a great number of the team are Bath Spa MA grads – this is professional theatrical talent, nourished and – I hope – flourishing here.

Before this gem is closes on Saturday, make the effort not to miss it. It is a small and beautiful work, a thoughtful piece of art, twinkling at the coalface of new theatre. Catch it while you can.

 

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Ebb and Flow is at The Rondo, Bath on July 15-18 at 7.30pm. Visit ticketsource.com for tickets.

All photos: Phoebe Graham-Dobrowolny 

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