Review: SQUIDGE, Riverside Studios

Photo credit: Juan Pablo Cifuentes

This debut from Tiggy Bayley is an intimate, darkly comic one-person show that explores grief, connection and the cracks in the education system. We follow Daisy Wright, broke, angry and feeling lost as she takes a job at a school where a school boy, Paddy, whose disruptive behaviour masks grief he can’t yet articulate. What unfolds is less of a “lesson” and more a deeply personal, human story about how people cope - or don’t - in the face of loss.

The production is striking in its simplicity: minimal props, no excess, just a performer and a story. That stripped-back approach creates a real sense of intimacy, making it feel as though we’re being confided in rather than performed to. Bayley’s presence is warm and grounded. She carries the character with an ease that makes even quieter, slower moments forgivable. The storytelling is vivid, often very funny, and then quietly devastating without ever feeling forced. There’s something genuinely comforting in the way that it holds both darkness and light at once.

There’s also huge likability at the centre of it. Daisy feels like someone you know, or could know, which makes the emotional connection immediately. The show has real heart, and that’s often the hardest thing to achieve. You find yourself laughing in relief at sharp observations about the education system, then sitting with the weight of what’s left unsaid.

If there’s a limitation, it’s that both the writing and performance occasionally feel a little safe. There are moments, particularly around Daisy’s grief, like the phone call with her mum, where the piece could push further, allowing us to sit in the present emotion rather than being told about it. Some storylines don’t fully land because they’re not explored deeply enough, and you sense there’s room to be braver, to dig further into the discomfort that the play so carefully circles.

That said, what’s here is already beautiful: a comforting, funny, and quietly affecting piece that leaves you wanting more, not out of dissatisfaction, but because you can feel just how much further it could go. It’s bold, but it has the potential to be even bolder, and that next step could make it something truly special.

**** Four stars

Reviewed by: Beatriz Ferreira

Squidge plays at London’s Riverside Studios until 29 March, with further info here.