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Review: The Argument (Baron’s Court Theatre)

Review by Jack Stevens

 

⭐️⭐️


You know that friend who says, "I just want to have a debate," but then ends up talking at you for an hour while you nod politely and wish you were elsewhere? The Argument is sort of like that — but with theatre lights. Billed as a bold, live experiment in audience-performer exchange, Spare The Rod's latest show promises heated discussion, sharp ideas, and an invitation to truly join the conversation. Sadly, what you get is a long hour of waiting for something interesting to happen.


To give them credit, the concept is genuinely intriguing. "We want you to have an argument with us," the show declares. "There's plenty we can learn from you." It sounds wonderfully open-ended and democratic, like the lovechild of a TED Talk and a pub fight. Over 60 minutes, the idea is to tackle big questions, guided entirely by audience suggestions. No script, just real-time discussion and debate. Think of theatre as a live thought experiment, complete with a buzzer for off-topic rambling. It's just unfortunate that the buzzer isn't used more often.


The cast deserves a nod — actors are planted in the audience, slowly revealing themselves. It's one of the most confusing elements of the show, and those performers blend in convincingly (maybe too convincingly — the most engaging "debate" of the night was about whether the woman next to me was acting or just very passionate). George & Alfie are warm; they greet you as you arrive, and there's real promise in the air for a few fleeting minutes at the start.



But things begin to crumble once we're in the thick of it — or rather, the lack of it. The direction is decent, to begin with, but disappears after the opening. There's an intro, a bit of coin flipping and then we're let loose in a format that feels like it hasn't been thought through past the concept. Arguments never really form, no one knows when to speak and the energy sags, but by the halfway point, you could almost hear the collective internal scream of the audience wishing someone, anyone, would say something interesting. Or even just coherent.


Technically speaking, it's a mixed bag. The lighting design does some nice work marking shifts in tone, especially when we're supposedly "in" or "out" of debate — but the show opens with George & Alfie speaking in near-darkness while a slideshow plays behind them and a shadowy monologue isn't exactly the best way to kick things off. The sound is mostly fine during the performance, but the music before and after is cranked up so loud it feels like you're about to be body-slammed by a subwoofer.



The set is a charming DIY mix of table, mic, rug, lamp, and confetti-strewn floor. There's a buzzer (which they use to signal digressions—if only real meetings had those), a computer, and a video projector. The videos themselves are decent—some playful pre-show artwork offers a glimmer of humor and visual interest before things take a long, dry slide into tedium.


And here's the thing — for a show called The Argument, there aren't any arguments. Not really. No sparks fly, no big ideas are wrestled with, and no one seems all that committed to holding a viewpoint. It ends up feeling more like a lukewarm seminar where no one did the reading. Even the planted actors, once revealed, don't really elevate things. There's no satisfying structure, no progression, just a sort of low-energy meander until the hour's up, and we're out into the night, dazed and confused. Because the last 10 minutes were just music playing, the actors awkwardly danced before a fight broke out. The audience left as the actors gave creepy looks, raising their hands to the entrance.



In the end, The Argument talks a big game but doesn't walk the walk. There's a lot of ambition here, but the execution is loose to the point of falling apart, and the audience is left doing the heavy lifting without much to hold onto. It's a 60-minute eternity you'll spend wishing someone would finally say something interesting. Either that or hit the buzzer and put a stop to it.


The Argument plays at the Barons Court Theatre until the 12th of April.

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