This award-winning play, written and performed by Sarah Calver, is making its UK debut at the Ovalhouse before going to Edinburgh’s Fringe. This one-woman show is unique in its blend of genres and characters, and moves from absurd comedy to physical theatre, to intense drama.

A play about heartbreak is something of a cliché: there are hundreds, thousands of plays, films and books out there about it, and yet it still fascinates us. Love, relationships, heartbreak, lovesickness, they are all universal themes, but here they receive a different treatment. With intertwining histories, past and present, rhymes, words and physical theatre, Calver makes something unique, special and poetic. Built around a near-suicide in 1885, these stories of heartbreak, love and lust appear, disappear and reappear seamlessly, inviting us to question which is which, or rather if all stories are basically the same one with different subjects.

Calver is an energetic performer. All her characters are vivid and intense, yet she also finds a beautiful delicacy in them, showing us their vulnerabilities as much as their strengths. She leaps from one character to the next effortlessly, making one single line of all of their stories, blending all their tribulations in one single concept: heartbreak. Her performance makes the audience wonder where she will go next, keeping tension and attention at similar levels throughout and showing us what solo performance is about.

The other elements of the show are also effective, with just a few objects on stage that have a meaning at certain moments, but without distracting us. A special mention must go to the blender, such a brilliant metaphor of the end of a relationship!

One of the most original aspects of I gave him an orchid is the way the audience is engaged in the show. Every audience member is asked to fill in a piece of paper (I won´t say what it is asked on it), and then all these pieces are kept on stage. Calver makes two audience members read these sentences to one another, creating a unique, ever-changing moment. You could hear your own thought being said aloud and making it resonate in a rather powerful way.

With laugh-out-loud moments, dramatic intensity and powerful storytelling, this play is the perfect example of a great text being brilliantly performed, conveying maybe not-so-obvious messages, but making us go on a journey through emotions and feelings. It is, after all, a play about being alive, and should not be missed.

I gave him an orchid is playing at Ovalhouse until 29 July. For more information and tickets, see the Ovalhouse website. Photo by Ovalhouse.