When a stranger comes up to you in a coffee shop and says she thinks she knows you your instinct is to help her remember where it might have been.

When that same stranger says she likes joining straws together and gives you some to help her build them, you start to suspect that perhaps you are part of the show.

In fact, it was difficult to distinguish between the audience and the actors at the Moksha Caffe on York Place, Brighton last night, as it was a mix of conversation, drama and improvisation.

The tale of a young woman awaiting the arrival of a blind date who doesn’t arrive was played silently and beautifully by Liz Long, and comedy with the various characters announcing their variety of addictions as if an a meeting for Alcoholics Anonymous all added to the uncertainty of what was real and what was not.

The director, Chris Orr said, “While I wrote a number of the conversations, the individual actors came up with many of the scenes and dialogue themselves.”

At the end of the show, I heard a man say, “I think we were the only ones not in it.”

Tales from the Coffee shop runs on 15th, 20th, 21st and 22nd May at 7.30. Entrance Fee is £6.00 (£5.00 Concessions)

By Donna Vaughan