 Written by ROGER HALL Directed by Lara Macgregor at Fortune Theatre, Dunedin Until 8 Mar 2014 Reviewed by Barbara Frame, 10 Feb 2014 originally published in Otago Daily Times |
What there is, for the audience, is delight – shelf-loads of it. Each of the very different characters is highly believable, even recognisable, and the actors, mostly veterans of Hall plays, present them superbly.
Seriously hard up poet Bert is played with deep dejection by Richard Huber; former editor Paul, who still manages an overseas trip or two, is portrayed with conviction by Dougal Stevenson. Peter Hayden looks increasingly insecure as actor Peter, so dependent on the sound of applause that he has it as his phone's ring tone.
Phil Grieve bounces from elation to despair as novelist Jeff and Barry de Lore, as Phil, shows us the highs and lows of the playwriting life. Geoffrey Heath makes sure that freelance writer Martin, something of a pedant, comes across as thoroughly likeable, and Julie Edwards lives up to the cafe's name as unsympathetic manager Bronwyn, whose comprehension of the literary world is marginal at best.
The characters revisit old grudges, bemoan their relative or actual penury, struggle with technology and lament the declining standards of English usage and just about everything else. Their witty and entertaining dialogue never sags, and the play ends brilliantly.
Peter King's set depicts the outside of the cafe, the men's preferred spot, and is cleverly enhanced with images of books.
Director Lara Macgregor makes the most of the play's erudite charm and ensures that this world premiere production is a great success. Saturday night's audience certainly thought so, and so did I. Everyone with even faintly bookish tendencies should go and, for the curmudgeons among us, attendance should be compulsory.
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