Kathryn (Ash Felkner) and Geoffrey (Dominic Farrow) find themselves locked in a walk-in freezer of a restaurant during the busy Christmas period. As restaurant owner and head chef respectively, Kathryn and Geoffrey arguably have different priorities, with presentation and economic considerations clashing with culinary standards and what is realistically achievable with the resources and manpower available. But once you add into the mix that Kathryn and Geoffrey were once a couple when they started up the restaurant (but still work together on a ‘professional basis’), it makes for an explosive combination. So begins the one-act play Small Extinctions, which is written by Ash Felkner and directed by Nance Turner.

As you would expect, the characters are preoccupied initially with trying to get out and keeping warm, and the play could have very easily descended into a facsimile of Jean-Paul Sartre’s Huis Close (No Exit), where ‘hell is indeed other people’. But once the couple start to ‘accept’ their situation, conversations of a more serious nature take place – slowly unpicking the emotional seams that have kept their respective thoughts and emotions in check.

Having established that they once had a ‘relationship’ and prone to disagreements, Geoffrey and Kathryn seem reluctant to part from each other. But what would the reason for this be? What bond do they share that they are reluctant to ‘sever’..?

Under Turner’s direction, the weightier aspects of the play are allowed to breathe and marinate in between the spells of mirth and levity. The play also goes out of its way to not demonise either party, but to instead disclose over time the rationale for past and present behaviour. Certainly their respective personalities play a part in the tension that surfaces, but so too has the assmption each has made when they were ‘not themselves’…

All of this would be moot if the chemistry wasn’t present between Felkner and Farrow, with Felkner in particular channelling Kathryn’s passionate, yet tempered, resolve…

And while it isn’t exactly the same as the ‘Time On Our Hands’ episode of Only Fools And Horses, Small Extinctions does share its balance between pathos and gravitas, as well as a ‘heart to heart’ discussion with triggers healing.

© Michael Davis 2026

Small Extinctions was performed at the Lion and Unicorn Theatre on 18th January.