Camden Fringe 2026: Take Care at Etcetera Theatre

With two performers winningly attuned to the shapeshifting, mile-a-minute shared thought process of a pair of anxious 20-something roommates, this Camden Fringe production ricochets from one digression to another with the rapidity of a social media feed. For these two confidantes, to bare their souls is to shuttle through pop-culture references, star signs, parasocial relationships, sexual misadventures, TikTok, vaping, gentrification, ChatGPT, 2000s nostalgia and more. It’s a lot, but, paradoxically, the more scattershot (and yes, a little cringey) Take Care is, the more truthful it feels. There’s a belief that this bickering central duo would feasibly start a podcast (as is suggested), even if there remains doubt that one would listen to it. After all, when the words “I’m so Manic Pixie Dream Girl!” are spoken, the delicate line between accurately capturing brainrot and inflicting it is already in a state of constant negotiation.

Nonetheless, the two leads find the dimension within potential 2D caricatures, believably torn between bemoaning their dead-end rut and fearfully clinging to it every time change rears its ugly head (usually in the form of a deathly dull boyfriend with moving-in plans). They’re equally hopeful and nihilistic, dejected and horny, eager to feel fully grown up and willing themselves to grow back down. Their chronologically segmented misadventures (the play unspools in vignettes that leap ahead months at a time) are persistently likeable, even up to the point of a lightly baffling late-in-the-game pivot that’s simply too jarring. To put it in the pair’s own reference-heavy speech, it’s a Coen Brothers by way of Morvern Callar pivot that feels like it ought to be the launching point for an entirely different play, not part of the closing note of this one.

Ultimately, this comic two-hander is well-performed and likeable fare, though mileage may vary on something that so exactingly approximates chronically online thought patterns. It doesn’t quite stick the landing, but the affectionate messiness on display makes for breezy company.

Thomas Messner
Photos: Courtesy of Take Care

Take Care is at Etcetera Theatre from 5^th until 10^th August 2026. For further information or to book, visit the theatre’s website here.