Perth Theatre
3 stars The Trivial Pursuits being played during the girls night say it all about Neil Simon’s mid 1980s female-led reboot of his 1965 New York flat-sharing comedy. Because, rather than the laddishly perennial poker school of the original, it’s that more voguishly faddish game which makes it look more of a period piece than it should do. That’s not necessarily to the detriment of Rachel O’Riordan’s bright and at times extremely funny new production. Just don’t mistake the primary colours and zingy period soundtrack, led by Cyndi Laupa’s gloriously inevitable Girls Just Want To Have Fun, as some cheap date hen-night extravaganza is all. Simon, and indeed O’Riordan, are smarter than that. Here, then, Olive is the slobby singleton holding court to a diverse mix of gal pals on the run from various states of marital harmony. When neurotic drama queen Florence turns up having been unceremoniously dumped after fourteen years, the unholy alliance the pair forge when Florence moves in is a disaster waiting to happen. When Olive negotiates the date with a wilfully one-dimensional pair of Spanish brothers in the next apartment that forms the play’s centre-piece, however, things take an unexpectantly liberating turn. As intelligent as some of Simon’s observations are on marriage – and it’s here the gender-bending really works – this is resolutely feel-good stuff. In today’s post Sex and the City climate, too, the wise-cracking discourse of Simon’s native New Yorkers here can sound rather tame. Fortunately a rock-solid cast, led by Abigail McGibben as Olive and Cara Kelly as Florence, deal with this without ever vulgarising things. Kelly in particular is a comic force of nature in a well-observed and occasionally invigorating sit-com. The Herald, October 1st 2012 ends
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