Memorable comedy of bad manners with hot ensemble
A SPARKLING script, cohesive direction and brilliant ensemble work make Brent Palmer’s comedy of bad manners a production to remember.
The plot confirms the title’s succinct simplicity: everything happens on one evening, in the course of a visit undertaken in the spirit of Auld Lang Syne as acquaintance is renewed between three former drama students whose paths have diverged significantly after leaving university.
From the reluctant host’s point of view, the reunion promises dubious pleasure, a suspicion amply justified by the event. Potential tensions are already apparent in the mild panic of last-minute preparations before the guests’ arrival; Luke and his wife Vanessa differ in their enthusiasm towards the visit, and their edgy dialogue gives insight into the sort of guests expected...
Enter Jacob and Jackie, fresh from Los Angeles, radiating glamour and confidence in the middle-class homeliness of Luke’s abode.
Jacob has emigrated to the US while Luke has stayed in South Africa and married Jacob’s ex-sweetheart, and Jacob has engaged the affections of a B-movie starlet.
Matters deteriorate steadily as we progress from four cheesy smiles to violent aggression. But as this is a comedy, the dénouement is predictably cheerful.
The actors could hardly be better cast: Stead, as the starlet Jackie, captures the engaging mindlessness of a woman with the IQ of a floret of broccoli; Samson (Vanessa) offers understated counterpoint, all warmth and earthiness; Berning, as Jacob, brings well-judged subtlety to a role that could easily become melodramatic; and Malherbe is utterly convincing as the insecure, defensive drama teacher whose claim to fame as the Lion in The Wizard of
Oz seems woefully inadequate beside the guests’ casual namedropping (“We saw Dustin the other day”).
This evening from hell is liberally irrigated with wine, so the noise level by Act Two is ear-offending, as we move from Trump-bashing to ego-bashing and latent spite bubbles to the surface.
Palmer’s economically designed set evokes a bourgeois domesticity that contrasts with all the emotionally charged drama played out in the highly diverting 75 minutes of The Visit.