Writer: Richard Molloy
Director: Alice Hamilton
Richard Molloy’s new play is very funny in true sitcom style. We have bossy wife Zoe, sweet but useless husband Kash, a horny older woman Naomi and her dopey toy boy Rocco. For the first 50 minutes, The Harmony Test edges toward superior farce, but then in the middle of this one-act play, Zoe and Kash receive devastating news that will change their lives forever. This sudden move from comedy takes some getting used to.
Zoe wants a baby; she’s written a checklist, downloaded a fertility app, costed prams and breast pumps, bought vitamins for Kash and insisted that he wear boxer shorts rather than his favoured Y-Fronts to increase sperm flow. She’s a micromanager.
Kash is an out-of-work actor. He’s a bit goofy and hugely gullible, buying a piece of Jesus’s foreskin from a shifty sales assistant in a health store who tells him that it will help him and Zoe get pregnant. Zoe chews on it hesitantly but hopefully.
Bally Gill is very good as Kash, fully committed to the role, and reacting well to his fellow actors. However, even he can’t give Kash the depth that the writing lacks. Kash is affable to a tee, but it would be better to see other layers to his character, Of course, this light touch would be fine if the play remained a farce.
As Zoe, Pearl Chanda has more than Christ’s prepuce to chew on. Her character is more rounded and displays a range of emotions. Right at the start when we see her grading students’ assessments there is a sense of her life outside designer Sarah Beaton’s detailed and impressive kitchen set. When the narrative becomes more serious, Chanda has an arc to play with whereas Kash remains the same throughout.
For those in the audience who know what a harmony test is, the abrupt change in tact will come as no surprise. Indeed, perhaps most expectant mothers will know what the term means. But Malloy’s title also extends to the idea of marriage and whether compromise within union can lead to happiness. The marriage between Naomi (Jemima Rooper) and Charlie (Milo Twomey) is decidedly inharmonious with Naomi proclaiming that no wife really loves her husband. She proves her point when she starts sleeping with personal trainer Rocco (a lovely understated Sandro Rosta).
With Alice Hamilton as director, the switches between humour and pathos are handled deftly and Kash and Zoe come alive even if we don’t get to know them entirely. The actors, too, effortlessly adjust to giving deeper observations seconds after they’ve delivered a fizzing one-liner. But despite the subject matter, this play still feels a little too safe.
Runs until 22 June 2024
The Reviews Hub Score
Deft but safe
