Meat Cute is a delightfully unhinged two-hander, a platonic rom-com with a huge chaotic heart. From the awkward to the outright absurd, this piece celebrates the rebellious moments that help us make sense of it all.
Brought to you by an all female powerhouse of Mischief Theatre Alumni, Meat Cute is funny, tender and deliciously relatable. It deep dives into the pressure to have it all together in your 30s, and shines a joyful spotlight on two women as they stumble, spiral and soar through the hilarity and heartbreak of modern womanhood.
At its core, the show is a love letter to friendship, frantically falling head over heels, it’s love at first meat platter. It brings to life the beautifully messy bond between two people figuring life out side by side. When the wild ride of being a woman makes you shrink and disappear, it’s often friendship that helps you feel seen.
Ahead of performances at The Other Palace Studio in London in June, we caught up with writers and performers Meg Travers and Laura Kirman and director Nancy Zamit to learn more about the play.
Meg and Laura have written a show with a huge chaotic heart. As a director, how do you ground that wild, frantic energy so the audience can feel the tender, emotional core of the story?
Nancy: It's very rare to meet comedy actors that have proper emotional chops. Meg and Laura have both in bucket loads. It almost feels unfair to be able to do both with such chemistry and ease. Bastards! "Grounding" them to be vulnerable in the moments that need it in this show has been about making them enjoy sitting in the story of female friendship, imagining telling your male friends all that you have been through, all the stuff they don't see. This can sometimes feel as electric and wild as doing a comedy routine, we don't need to ground that we need to listen up.
Nancy: It's very rare to meet comedy actors that have proper emotional chops. Meg and Laura have both in bucket loads. It almost feels unfair to be able to do both with such chemistry and ease. Bastards! "Grounding" them to be vulnerable in the moments that need it in this show has been about making them enjoy sitting in the story of female friendship, imagining telling your male friends all that you have been through, all the stuff they don't see. This can sometimes feel as electric and wild as doing a comedy routine, we don't need to ground that we need to listen up.
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| Nancy Zamit |
Directing a two-hander requires a massive amount of trust and pacing. How did you approach building the onstage world for just two performers while ensuring the stage always feels full and alive?
Nancy: We have an excellent creative team on this show. The script is so open to interpretation in terms of set/costume/lights/sound that allowing the designers to just play has been fantastic. As a director I'm a huge collaborator and really want departments to shine and fill the show with their ideas. In terms of acting, we all come from a clowning background. The show utilises elements of audience interaction and clowning to blend together and tell the story. We go through the show with Meg and Laura as both actors and characters. There is nowhere to hide, we embrace that and allow the audience in. If the show is sweaty they let us sweat with them. Yum.
You are all Mischief Theatre Alumni, a group world-renowned for impeccable comedic timing and physical theatre. How did that shared background and shorthand shape the rehearsal process for Meat Cute?
Nancy: It's so wonderful to be in a room where there is a shared history for what a certain style of comedy feels like to perform. We can tap into that structure wherever it's appropriate. It's actually a great guide to know when things aren't working. We all know how a good comedic beat should feel and if it's not hitting right, it's gone!
Nancy: It's so wonderful to be in a room where there is a shared history for what a certain style of comedy feels like to perform. We can tap into that structure wherever it's appropriate. It's actually a great guide to know when things aren't working. We all know how a good comedic beat should feel and if it's not hitting right, it's gone!
This is an all-female powerhouse creative team. How did that shared perspective influence the way the show addresses the specific vulnerabilities of modern womanhood—the moments where you feel like shrinking and disappearing?
Nancy: I think a huge thing was getting Meg and Laura to actually perform the work in progress show for the first time! They had written this wonderful play full of brilliant opinions, big feelings and great knowledge but then when it came to it, they almost felt scared to say it out loud. This to me is womanhood in a nutshell. We all have wonderful brains and valuable thoughts and we are programmed to diminish them if they get too much attention. It was so important to have an all female team behind them championing them and shouting "Yes! Tell us your story!" from the sidelines.
Nancy: I think a huge thing was getting Meg and Laura to actually perform the work in progress show for the first time! They had written this wonderful play full of brilliant opinions, big feelings and great knowledge but then when it came to it, they almost felt scared to say it out loud. This to me is womanhood in a nutshell. We all have wonderful brains and valuable thoughts and we are programmed to diminish them if they get too much attention. It was so important to have an all female team behind them championing them and shouting "Yes! Tell us your story!" from the sidelines.
Meg: This creative team is everything, I've never been in a rehearsal room like it. From the start of this project Laura and I wanted to write a show we wished we'd seen at the time in our lives when we felt invisible and give a voice to the female narratives that are so often overlooked. Nancy and Jess have nurtured and liberated us to do just that and it's been the most cathartic, joyful, collaborative experience.
Laura: It's been the most enjoyable journey in which we have all felt championed and supported. A room full of inspiring women, who've enabled it to be this version of Meat Cute. It truly has been one of the best creative processes I've ever been a part of. More please!!
If you could send a message back to your own 20-something selves about what life in your 30s is actually like, what would you tell them? Does Meat Cute capture that advice?
Nancy: I feel like a completely different person in my 30's to my 20's. This show speaks to that, particularly with friendships. The friends you make in your 30s can be some of the most impactful of your life, a saviour when you're changing and ageing. This show is a real love letter to that.
Nancy: I feel like a completely different person in my 30's to my 20's. This show speaks to that, particularly with friendships. The friends you make in your 30s can be some of the most impactful of your life, a saviour when you're changing and ageing. This show is a real love letter to that.
Meg: I'd say strap in for some plot twists boo! Not all dramatic ones, although some will be, others will come in the form of new friendships. Just when you thought you weren't recruiting, bam - you'll meet a legend that wins you over with a very impressive roly poly (sensational work Lau)! You have different friends for different reasons, but I think I'd reassure 20-something me that whether they're old or new, my friends will remain the true loves of my life.
Laura: I think the journey from your 20's into your 30's is a bumpy, wild ride. But the thing that will get you through it is the people you surround yourself with. Those friends will be there through the highs and lows. I know I certainly wouldn't have gotten through the last few years without my mates. Meat Cute wouldn't even exist if I hadn't fallen in friendship with Meg on a job, where I just knew she had to be in my life. The story truly celebrates female friendship and how vital those relationships are.
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| Meg Travers and Laura Kirman. |
After a high-energy, emotionally raw, and physically exhausting show like this, what is the ultimate powerhouse team ritual? Are you hitting the pub, or is it immediate pyjamas and a debrief?
Nancy: Every rehearsal feels like therapy and every show feels like a party to celebrate each other. Working with women is truly the best. After the shows though.. there is usually some kind of scheduling and/or childcare nightmare that separates us all within seconds. We're busy and important bitches out here!
Nancy: Every rehearsal feels like therapy and every show feels like a party to celebrate each other. Working with women is truly the best. After the shows though.. there is usually some kind of scheduling and/or childcare nightmare that separates us all within seconds. We're busy and important bitches out here!
What was the first piece of theatre that had a big impact on you?
Nancy: A production of 'Animal Crackers' in 1999 at the Lyric Theatre. It was a Marx brothers show, the actors were in the audience, loads of improv. Chaos. It was the first time I realised plays didn't need to be: the audience sat watching people on the stage talking. It could be completely bonkers and free.
Nancy: A production of 'Animal Crackers' in 1999 at the Lyric Theatre. It was a Marx brothers show, the actors were in the audience, loads of improv. Chaos. It was the first time I realised plays didn't need to be: the audience sat watching people on the stage talking. It could be completely bonkers and free.
Meg: Both Lau and I seem to have been obsessed with Kneehigh theatre. Their creative storytelling always blew me away. It wasn't the first piece of theatre I saw but it's the first that made me want to create my own work and that was Kneehigh's Brief Encounter.
Laura: Kneehigh's Tristan and Yseult made me want to tell stories for a living, It was on at the Minack Theatre where I was doing work experience. I'd never seen anything like it. It made me laugh, cry and feel so much. It still is one of the most powerful pieces of storytelling I've ever seen. After that I was like how do I do that for a living please?!
When the audience leaves the theatre, what is the one thing you hope they feel about their own friendships?
Nancy, Meg and Laura: That they appreciate and treasure their female friends. We hope people come out of the show and want to call their mates and tell them how much they love them.
Nancy, Meg and Laura: That they appreciate and treasure their female friends. We hope people come out of the show and want to call their mates and tell them how much they love them.
Meat Cute runs at The Other Palace Studio in London from 16th to 20th June 2026. For tickets and more information visit https://theotherpalace.co.uk/meat-cute/
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| Laura Kirman and Meg Travers |
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