Two By Two: a short film by Laura Evelyn

Description

A group of three close-knit friends, on a boozy night out, stumble onto what looks like couples queueing for an immersive theatre experience. But when light drizzle turns into a full-blown thunderstorm and the queue starts disappearing through a wall with no door, they quickly sober up and realise their dilemma: How can three single BFFs board a ship that will save them from the end times, when only couples are allowed? Lucy is single and in her 30s; her best mates Guy and Maggie are sneaking into their forties. When they comprehend that the world is ending and only couples will be saved aboard the Ark - it’s Guy and Maggie who waste no time engineering a ticket for themselves, abandoning Lucy and leaping through what looks like a brick wall - whose chalk outline undraws itself leaving Lucy alone to drown. She desperately swipes right on her dating app again and again. It’s too late. And just as all hope seems lost, the rain stops and the storm eases. Birds chirrup in the clear blue sky. She abandons her phone and the creepy alleyway, finds a discarded bicycle-for-two, and cycles away with a smile on her face.

Biblical Connection

The story of Noah’s Ark (Genesis: 6:11–9:19). I’ve re-imagined it quite literally. (Fear not. It’s written with only a handful of special effects; suggestion and dialogue reveal everything we need to know.) Rather than ‘bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh’ due to human violence and corruption, the punishment is laid at the feet of single people who should know better than to have found themselves without a Significant Other; missing the other half of their Soul; buying a whole Loaf of Bread knowing full well they won’t get through the whole thing. I’m interested in the pressure exerted on single people (women, in particular) by society (the media, in particular) to be ‘coupled up’; to have found their ‘other half’ or ‘soulmate’. As a woman, writing this, I feel somewhat punished and ‘other’. Sometimes the ethereality of the internet and the media feel god-like. They wield an unavoidable power beyond our control. Two By Two’s ending is pleasingly vengeful…