Writer: Donald Marguiles
Director: Lawrence Carmichael
One of the more exquisitely painful social experiences available to us is being in close and inescapable proximity to a couple having a serious row about their relationship.
Writer Donald Marguiles seems, in the late 1990s, to have felt differently and so gave us this two-hour dissection of relationships, breakdowns, doubt, love and conflict. It’s a Pulitzer Prize winning piece – and does indeed have some beautiful moments that dig deep into the challenges a long-term relationship needs to endure and what happens when they all come too much. But it’s a slog to get through and the content here gets in the way of some great performances by the four-strong cast.
The story follows two couples, one which sticks together and one which splits. Gabe and Karen (Jason Wilson and Helen Rose Hampton) are a middle-class, foodie, creative pair with a seemingly strong marriage. Their long-time friends, Tom and Beth (Kim Hardy and Julia Papp), he a lawyer and she an artist, also seem strong until Beth announces at dinner that Tom has run off with an air-stewardess. This sets the scene for an exploration of how they met, the cracks in the relationships between all four of them, and a warning not to judge before knowing all the facts.
It’s an interesting subject no doubt, sadly relatable to most, but a few things stand in our way of getting properly invested. Primarily, the two men are almost from the first words, totally unlikeable. Smug and irritating, they’re so flawed to begin with that when it comes their turn to receive our full focus as they talk intelligently and sensitively about loneliness and intimacy it’s a battle to engage with them on the right level. Their message is drowned out by their characters. It may also be a legacy of the style of late 90’s writing, but there’s an air of pretentiousness that’s difficult to take. It is mostly fluid and smart, with a few flourishes. It snags on some oddly grandiose phrasing that takes us out of the attempt at drama and reminds us that this show is from a playwright’s hand. Really, in the apex heat of an argument post-marital breakdown, would someone call the other a “dilettante”? Do people really refer to Freud’s idea of “id” in tense discussions about the marriage institution? Maybe it’s just an American thing.
It’s hard to see if this language issue or the likeability of the characters are results of the script, or how director Lawrence Carmichael treats it. If those are the words on the page though, it’s hard to lay this at his door. In fact, Carmichael’s presentation of this work is generally a delight – lots of movement to break up a lot of talking about feelings and lovely timing for the scattered jokes.
The cast also turn in fantastic performances which helps. This is especially true for Jason Wilson who, as Gabe, also provides the emotional heart of the piece. They roam around a clever and versatile set designed as a collaboration between the whole Frontfoot theatre company team. The music is a weird, goofy selection of acapella vocalising that contributes little but quirkiness.
Marguiles’ play won a whole mantlepiece’s worth of awards for this in 1999 and 2000, and it was a film with an incredible cast (Dennis Quaid and Andie MacDowell among others). This revival has some great spots thanks to Carmichael and the cast, but makes us wonder what the appeal was all those years ago.
Runs until 26 November 2022
