Cold Water (2025)
Performances: Tuesday 2 – Saturday 6 September 2025, Old Fire Station
Contents
Introduction
After university, Emma returns to her old secondary school in Harpenden to assist Matt in the drama department.
Intimate and quietly charged, Cold Water explores how easy it is to stay where you are — especially when you're not sure where to go, or what might happen if you tried.
Preview from the SLT website
What drew you to this play?
The play isn’t polished or grand. It feels relatable, with a kind of fly-on-the-wall quality. What interests me is how much of its weight sits in the silences, in the subtext, and in what goes unsaid between two people. It feels honest in how we actually connect, or fail to, in real life. I also like that the play leaves space for the audience to notice the shifts and fill in the gaps for themselves.
What themes does the play explore?
It’s about how easy it is to stay still, the weight of choices we don’t make, and how much of ourselves we end up recognising in other people. It asks whether you have the courage to shape a life you want, or to admit to yourself what that even is. To me, it captures those growing pains that don’t only belong to adolescence, but resurface again and again in adulthood.
Tell us about the two characters we’ll meet.
We meet Matt (Elliot Archer), a secondary school drama teacher in Harpenden, and Emma (Tess Eltringham), who’s found herself back at her old school working as an assistant teacher. Thirteen years apart, they share more than they’d like to admit – and in recognising each other’s shortcomings, they’re confronted with their own. That recognition is as magnetic as it is unsettling.
What are the challenges you’ve found in directing a two-hander?
All cast sizes come with their own challenges, but with just two actors in the room I’ve found it takes a huge amount of focus and presence from them at all times, both in rehearsal and performance. It asks a lot, but the work is exciting because it lets us go so deep. Every shift and beat has to be carried by the same two people, and as a director, part of the challenge is finding shape and variation within that.
Describe the play in three words.
Sharp. Intimate. Restless.
Cast
- Emma - Tess Eltringham
- Matt - Elliot Archer
Crew
- Stage Manager - Francesca Saunders
- Lighting Designer - Dennis Fenton
- Sound Designer - Guy Jones
- Operator - Jessika Hirvonen
- Set Design - Ella Killinen
- Costumes - Cast
- Show Photography - Phil Gammon
- Rigging - Sean Thomas and Dennis Fenton
- Set Build Team - Dennis Fenton, Alistair Simpson, cast and crew
Reviews
I had the privilege of seeing Cold Water last night. Apparently there were opening night nerves, they were not apparent to me. What I saw was a beautifully directed, skillfully acted piece of theatre on a paired down set that pleasingly used every item and gave the deliciously intimate feeling of intruding into a drama studio. One tiny personal irk was the length of the transitions between scenes but I’m sure that these will get slicker as the week goes on. Have fun, guys, you certainly deserve it!
Caroline Doyle
Really enjoyed Cold Water last night - two lovely, naturalistic and emotional performances, and a very relatable piece of writing. Jessika Hirvonen and her team deserve bigger audiences - please do support and catch it these next three nights
Caroline Beckett
Cold Water has a perfect stillness and intensity, balanced by wonderful British awkwardness and light, hesitant British humour. With two excellent, studied (and beautifully naturalistic ) performances, deft direction and the perfect setting and lighting, the result is something more of us should be getting tickets for. TWO MORE NIGHTS!
Guy Jones
Gallery
- Photos by Phil Gammon
Reminiscences and Anecdotes
Members are encouraged to write about their experiences of working on or seeing this production. Please leave your name. Anonymous entries may be deleted.
See Also
Have there been other SLT productions of this play? Link to them here.
Or add anything that is related within this site. The author's page for instance or other plays with a similar theme.
