Rebecca Humphries is dynamite – pity about the play: Blackout Songs, at Hampstead Theatre, reviewed

Viewers watching a good romcom need to fall in love with three things. The boy, the girl and the affair itself. The new Hampstead melodrama, Blackout Songs, scores just one out of three. Rebecca Humphries is adorably chic and sexy as the Soho seductress who drifts from bar to bar, picking up men. Her toyboy is a disappointment, a teenage deadbeat who has none of her louche gusto. And his character is a puzzle when it ought to be crystal clear.

At the start of the action he wears a neck-brace and speaks with a stammer. In the next scene, his neck has healed and his stammer has vanished as well. Is he two characters? Or is he a con man who assumes different personalities, and if so why? He dresses in a paint-spattered tracksuit but he claims to be a welder, a rock star and a fine artist. Which is it? And he lives in a squat. Or does he? It’s pointless following a character who may turn out to be someone else. And the script lazily refers to the lovers as Him and Her. A wise dramatist uses names to send vital information about the background of his characters. It’s silly to discard such a useful tool.

The Him/Her affair consists of boozing, banal chit-chat and strange role play. The boy claims to have a broken tooth and the girl pretends to remove the troublesome fang with utensils from a kitchen drawer but it’s difficult to know if the extraction is real or not. And performing dental operations in a squat is hardly romantic. Occasionally, a flash of wit appears. She lives by the motto ‘Stay single, drink doubles’. And she mentions a friend with a stammer who died in jail.