Review: Happy Ending

Happy Ending
Melbourne Theatre Company
7 September 2012
Southbank Theatre, The Lawler
to 22 September
mtc.com.au

Even if she hasn't had much of late, 40-something Louise hasn't forgotten the thrill of wild and illicit sex, and the possibly-too-young Chinese masseur at the local mall is unintentionally finding her more-please spots and she's hoping for 'that' kind of happy ending.

In her new play Happy Ending, Melissa Reeves takes us away from hipster lanes and into a shopping mall where she understands and revels in the satisfaction of a bad latte and an instant McMassage. It's no barrista-made, freshly-roasted single-origin espresso with too-beautiful-to-stir foam art and time with an experienced therapist who wants to help you heal, but it's cheap and easy – and close enough can be damn good.

Nell Feeny (Louise) captures the frustration of a woman who's happy, but not satisfied. She has a good friend to talk to (Roz Hammond), a toddler who never cries and daily massages, but, of course, the musak and IKEA-screen facade of intimacy and exotic healing aren't enough.

Louise buys herself a new second-hand emerald ring, but she really wants the handsome young masseur, also called Lu, who's happy to take her money but awkward about seeing her tits. So, as her daily business isn't getting his attention, she creates her own fake massage business to find out how the Chinese do business.

With gloriously awkward scenes like taking Lu (Gareth Yuen) and his boss (hilarious Fanny Hanusin) to dinner in Little Bourke Street and subtitles that let us hear what her Chinese friends really think, Louise's quest is embarrassingly familiar – who hasn't made a fool of themselves in the quest for a great shag? – but embarrassment isn't as funny or as powerful as humiliation. Louise is always OK and there's room for more cringing and for danger, especially as it's hard to know what Louise stood to lose with her Lu obsession, which made it difficult to support or want to stop her quest for a happy.

With its comically blessed cast and director Susie Dee finding extra dark humour,  Happy Ending is as satisfying as a McMassage. It's enjoyable and it really hurts when it hits the personal spots, but it feels like it should be more intimate and personal.

Photo by Melissa Cowan

Review: Livin' The Dream

MELBOURNE FRINGE 2010

Livin' The Dream

5 October 2010

Meeting Room,  Fringe hub

to 9 October

www.melbournefringe.com.au

I had no idea that I had lived someone's dream. Back in 1988, little Kate McLennan would so have hated me because I went to Expo 88.

In Livin the Dream, Kate McLennan and Fiona Harris open their hearts and embarrassing pasts to explore what it means to live your dreams. With vision boards (you've watched Oprah and know what they are), family pics,  a blackboard and videos of their comedian friends, Kate and Fiona sit down to a cup of tea and talk about the dreams they achieved and their total fails.

Fiona directed Kate in the award-winning and bloody marvellous  The Debutante Diaries in 2006 and in last year's  Dead River. It's so wonderful to see this duo being themselves and I can't say enough good about them. Except that it's great to see them joined by director Roz Hammond. Roz is already one of the best comedy actors around and twists stand up and theatre into a structure that makes the show feel like a chat in the living room with your best friends, while being as therapeutic as a year in expensive therapy.

The stories we love the most aren't devised by overly-clever writers (who all secretly admire the Da Vinci Code for its plotting), but are the day-to-day things that really happened. Real stories are the ones that our hearts love, even if our brain tells us to love the clever plotting.

By listening to Fiona and Kate read their childhood literature (I would buy the picture book about the baby chook being flushed down the toilet), show pictures of their not-as-hot-as-they-are-now teen years and reveal some big relationship scars, everyone in the audience can re-live their own remarkably similar experiences.

I know I wasn't the only person inanely grinning with recognition. Being neither blonde nor hot, I too aspired to be the achievable Jan in Grease (and it solved my lack of dancing/singing skill), discovered at 15 that getting off your face was totally the best way to talk to boys, used the phrase "get on" (what one did when "talking" to boys), liked The Pirate Movie and have spent time following and staying with men who had made it clear that I wasn't the one.

But at least I didn't talk to trees and can remember the name of my first with-tongues kiss.

Dreams are what get us out of bed to face each day, so don't consider missing Livin' the Dream

And Kate, Expo was great, even if I didn't see any of the Young Talent Team and was busy trying to impress a boy who didn't fancy me. 

This review appears on AussieThearte.com (without my Expo 88 pass).

  

The Female of the Species

The Female of the Species
Melbourne Theatre Company
2 September 2006
The Playhouse, The Arts Centre


If you love a good “he’s behind you” gag, or you appreciate a deconstructed joke about Derrida deconstructing a piece of toast, you should enjoy the The Female of the Species. Joanna Murray-Smith’s script is witty, funny and intelligent. It is easy to laugh with, but a difficult play to enjoy.

The Female of the Species is a farce about the ironies and hypocrisies of feminism. Farce meaning the comedic tradition and structure, complete with mistaken identity, innuendo and unbelievable situations all liberally sprinkled with vagina jokes and the obligatory oral sex ‘gag’. It is also full of very witty and sophisticated jokes about the history of feminist literature (make sure you look at the wonderful book covers). If you don’t know your Dworkin from your de Beauvoir, there is a reading list in the program.

Ironically, the deliberate irony of combining two styles of comedy is unsuccessful and frustrating. The play opens with a delightful portrait of famous feminist-intellect Margot Mason and her young nemesis Molly. When Molly pulls out a gun, the structural and directorial descent to farce is immediate and almost …well.…farcical.

The direction and acting are uneven and reflect the conflicting styles. Director Patrick Nolan draws on every expected tradition of the farce genre. The characters find themselves in sexually compromising positions, situations are resolved as new characters suddenly appear through the french doors, and each time the plot loses momentum – a gun is fired to wake the audience up. I am unsure if this was meant to be a satirical deconstruction of farce, or just lazy direction. The final moments of the show do detour from the expected structure, but this moment fizzles, rather than jolts.

Conflicting acting styles add to the frustration. Some cast play with the farce, complete with sly glances at the audience, while others play it as a fourth wall drama with some funny lines.
Nonetheless, it is the engaging performances from all cast members that make The Female of the Species an enjoyable evening. Sue Ingleton is the standout. I’m sure many members of the audience were cringing or cheering, as they recognised Margot. Margot is also the most broadly drawn character and given a real (if not fulfilled) emotional arc. Roz Hammond (as her daughter) and Bojana Novakovic (as her captor) ably support her. Each character is original and tightly drawn, but their reactions and behaviours were frustratingly expected and clichéd. Roz continues to prove herself as a wonderful comedian (or comedienne – depending on which wave of feminist thought you chose), using the farcical style to full advantage. Bojana plays her character straight. Both styles work well, but not together.

The male characters are far less believable than the women. Again, I am unsure if it was meant to be satirical, but they seemed to fall straight from the pages of “Stereotyped Men and the Women who Love or Hate Them”. There was the namby-pamby SNAG; the angry, but sensitive black guy; and the big old queen. Each did exactly what we expect these characters to do if they appear in a daytime soap.

Murray-Smith’s script is a very funny observation of the impact of feminist thought. The jokes and the performances sustain the evening. However, I would have like to see it directed with more purpose and irony, rather than indulgence.

This review originally appeared on AussieTheatre.com.