THEATRE REVIEW

Sexy Laundry Review by Edward Carleton-Holmes

Waipukurau’s Little Theatre’s production of Sexy Laundry by Canadian playwright Michele Riml is set in an expensive hotel room where a married couple are trying to reignite their marriage.

Alice (Julie Hales) thinks the spark has gone and has dragged husband Henry (Steve Parker) along for a weekend of sexy shenanigans to, hopefully, jazz things up. She has a book, she’s taken notes and she has plans. Henry has none of those things and quite frankly doesn’t see the point. Needless to say Alice’s plans fall somewhat flat.

Riml takes a light-hearted and often very insightful look at the problems and frustrations of mid-life and long marriage (25 years and counting in this case), and this production delivers those insights very well. Julie Hales delivers her ‘Alice’ with near boundless energy, enthusiasm and a strong sense for her character’s emotional highs and lows, all of which bounced around, over, off and sometimes through the more emotionally solid character of husband Henry.

Steve Parker, in the first act, struggled a little with his lines and delivery at times, mostly due to nerves and lack of recent experience, but his character was always sound, and he provided an excellent foil to Alice. By the second act his emotive delivery of character was easily up to the challenge. Both actors were obviously comfortable with each other and their characters, making it very easy to believe they had been married for 25 years.

Lindsay Bishop has delivered a free-flowing, quickfire production, allowing the characters to shine as they struggle to save a marriage while learning about themselves, with laughs, and thought-provoking moments along the way, making for a delightfully entertaining show that is over all to soon.