Haley McGee was on the phone with Visa, promising to pay off her bill by having a yard sale, when she realized all the things she could sell were gifts from her exes. Inspired by this call, The Ex-Boyfriend Yard Sale is hilarious and daring show about the cost of love or what love costs us. To figure this out, Haley smashes together personal divulgences, maths, recorded interviews with some of her exes, economics, the politics of commerce and a little bit of dance. She wants to know what the stuff we're left with after a breakup is actually worth, given all the ways we invest in relationships (who broke up with who, how good the poetry was, how long did the relationship last, who paid for more things during the relationship, etc etc). World renowned physicist Lee Smolin has agreed to help by creating a mathematical formula accounting for all these variables and how they should be weighted. And they're adding things like a crying tax for any object given to Haley before 2012. Part-installation, part-storytelling and part-maths equation, this autobiographical work features nine items for sale all gifts from Haley's exes.
Developed on Starting Blocks at CPT.
Tobi King Bakare and this theatre deserve a shout-out for such a young, diverse audience. There is so much talk about audiences being full of over 60s and why, why can’t theatres get the crowds in to reflect society in general? Well, I’m happy to say that on a rainy Thursday evening, the theatre was completely full.
Caiti Grove on Before I Go in CPT's Spring 2023 season London Theatre Reviews
