Bringing some surrealism to Yorkshire, the Eggs Collective showcase their new performance piece, Late Night Love, at The West Yorkshire Playhouse where Leo Owen caught the show

SELF-professed feminist performers, Manchester based trio, Eggs Collective (Sara Cocker, Lowri Evans and Léonie Higgins) combine cabaret and immersive theatre in their second show. Named after a radio show all three listened to while growing up in the 1980s, Late Night Love explores how power ballads, soft rock and confessional phone-ins impacted on the trio’s expectations of adulthood, love and relationships.

Opening with cheesy one-liners as an intimate audience are scattered around tables adorned with red cloths, champagne glasses and rose petals, Late Night Love immediately unsettles by stating the obvious: “We’ll be providing a romantic atmosphere.” The juxtaposition of this clichéd setting with the arrival of an anonymous performer wearing a black full body morph suit, again unnerves, deconstructing romantic notions voiced by an unseen radio DJ. Equally disarming is some of the more truthful commentary she makes about her faithful listeners, delivered in a deceivingly sultry tone: “a song from a gay man pretending to be straight.”

While the show’s live voice-over dismantles and mocks romantic clichés, other Eggs Collective members action roll across stage, also concealed in black skin tight hooded onesies to poke fun at legendary Milk Tray adverts. Having waited uncomfortably unsure of where and how audience participation would be expected, worried viewers become part of the show, offered Milk Tray chocolates in stealth style and encouraged to fill out song dedication request slips.

Despite being directed by Olivier Award-winner Mark Whitelaw, Late Night Love feels very disjointed. Absurd visual symbolism intermixes with a surreal live version of Eric Clapton’s “Wonderful Tonight”. One performer crawls through a series of men’s shirts carefully laid out across the floor before emerging awkwardly layered up and virtually immobile. A Richard Gere fantasy is comically panted out; songs are dedicated to “all the men who drink liquor and know how to bust balls”; there’s live ice sculpting with a flame thrower and an audience member is sketched in chocolate while another repeatedly throws coats on the final member. The common thread? Tenuously, the arbitrariness of love.

Posing questions such as “When does a girl become a woman?”, Late Night Love challenges its audience. Although it lacks structure, its unpredictability cleverly mimics the uncertainty of “love”, entertainingly exploring the age-old question “What is love?”

Late Night Love showed in the Barber Studio before continuing its UK tour: http://www.eggscollective.com/#!dates/cfvg