'Mixed Doubles' at Brisbane Arts Theatre

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Sat 01 Feb 2014 - Sat 01 Mar 2014

This is a show which might very easily not have happened.

The Arts Theatre had planned another show, and, four weeks into rehearsals, had it "pulled" because another company was touring it. So the cast was asked to do something quite different – and agreed.

I have to say that, on 'Opening Night' there were none of the hiccups that one might have expected from a hastily prepared show – actors, stage presentation, sound and lighting all worked well.

Eight short plays is what we got, linked by "anti-authoritarian" monologues written by George Melly, the English jazz and blues singer, lecturer, and actor.

The opening homily set the benchmark high. Alex Lanham's timing was superb, as his admonitions to the unfortunate bridal pair were replete with subtle innuendo and had the audience chuckling and roaring with laughter. Then came a dialogue, where a newly wed bride discovers that her husband has "issues" which may not make for harmony.

We watch a couple playing losing tennis, as they squabble with each other, while presenting a smiling social face. Damien Campagnolo is a highlight of the evening as a power-drunk authoritarian Scottish headmaster of the very old school, and then Harold Pinter gives us a delicately timed variation on "I remember it well" as a couple remember or mis-remember their first meetings.

After the interval we have a paranoid psychotherapist, and a series of plays about couples never quite connecting. The highlight of the second half was Alan Ackybourne's "Countdown" where an elderly couple share their interior monologue as commentary on their mutual frustration.

After a devastating dialogue between a couple not quite celebrating their silver wedding, we have a feisty union official being undermined in his negotiations by a series of phone calls from home. And then, would you believe, a bitter sweet and beautifully acted dialogue in a cemetery.

This was a fascinating evening, with excellent acting, and lots of witty and perceptive depictions of married life. The audience clearly loved it – and may well have recognised themselves in some of the characters.

But it has to be said – if these Mixed Doubles' dialogues added up to a definitive definition of marriage, it might be wise to play singles.

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!date 01/02/2014 -- 01/03/2014
%wnbrisbane