 Back in the mid-2000s, Amelia (Stella Cohen) and Bonnie (Arabella Finch) were inseparable—spending afternoons absorbed in the pinnacle of British TV culture like Snog, Marry, Avoid and Don’t Tell the Bride, simply enjoying the chaos and comfort of being teenage girls together.
But when Amelia’s family suddenly relocates to Spain, the depth of that departure isn’t fully grasped—at least, not until years later. Fast-forward fifteen years, and Bonnie, now deep into adulthood, stumbles across Amelia’s Instagram. On a whim, driven by nostalgia or perhaps hope, she invites her old friend over for a dinner party. Disco 2000 feels like the unexpected love child of Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging and Richard Linklater’s Before Sunset. The bond between Cohen and Finch crackles with that same chaotic “Ace Gang” energy that is wild, loyal, and hormonal. They capture the intense, exaggerated emotional swings of teenagehood, where every moment teeters between ecstasy and devastation. Much like Before Sunset, this play captures the vulnerability and electricity of a long-lost connection revisited - awkward, raw, and with a hopeful kind of tension. The play is cleverly structured, with Bonnie serving as our narrator, guiding us through a series of scenes that shift seamlessly between past and present. We move between teenage memories and adult realities, all building towards Amelia’s departure for Spain and Bonnie’s anxious preparations for a dinner party she secretly wishes was just the two of them, alone. Arabella Finch brings a wild and witty energy to the stage, populating the story with an eccentric cast of dinner party characters from over-the-top designers to eccentric Channel 4 producers that are all portrayed with delightful precision and comic flair. Amid the chaos and colour of the creatives that surround her, Bonnie seems strangely out of sync—like someone whose life hasn't quite matched the energy of the world she moves in. There’s a boyfriend, mentioned here and there, whom she has to remind herself, perhaps one too many times, is actually a good guy. And there’s something missing. Something unspoken. Maybe it's Amelia. Maybe it's what Amelia represents: a version of herself that felt more alive, more certain, more connected. That sadness lingers, and Finch lets us feel it but not with words, but in the stolen glances, the hesitations, the flickers of doubt on her face. When a spilt glass of red wine forces both Bonnie and Amelia to swap their dinner party outfits for sweatpants and pyjamas, something shifts. The characters both literally and metaphorically strip back the layers. It’s in this moment, with façades dropped and pretences gone, that the characters and structure finally sync up. The play reminds us that very little can compare with the love between two best friends in their early teens which is fierce, all-consuming connection where you speak in code, finish each other's sentences, and feel invincible just by being in each other’s orbit. Disco 2000 captures that bond with honesty and humour, but also with a tender sadness for what time and distance can erode. And yet, as Bonnie and Amelia find their way back to one another, there’s hope in the quiet suggestion that some connections, no matter how much time has passed, never really disappear; they just wait to be rekindled. Lee Hutchison 4.5/5 DISCO 2000 Venue: Thistle Theatre at Greenside @ Riddles Court Dates: August 4th to 9th Time: 1130 Tickets: www.edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/disco-2000 |
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