THE LAST STRAW

The Last Straw opens with Imogen (Sophie Cook) telling her long-term and two-timing boyfriend Hugo (Damian Sommerlad) she is breaking up with him. The next hour follows the couple trying to sell their belongings and move out of their apartment while a stream of random people pop into their lounge room. This comedy is unfortunately void of humour and character development. Audiences are left wondering why the central characters fell in love in the first place. Perhaps the playwright (Ross Logan) should have spent less time devising inventive ways to say ‘sex’ and ‘wanking’ (horizontal mumbo jumbo, dipping the schnitzel, pumping the python, sinking the soldier) and more time on creating character arcs and plot. Actors also forgot their lines, but luckily all the characters were written to be unbelievably stupid so blank faces and prolonged periods of awkward smiling or clown-like grinning seemed to fit in okay. This play feels like a first draft read through of a high school play.

Until Apr 23, Newtown Theatre, cnr King & Bray Sts, Newtown, $15-28, 8019 0294,newtowntheatre.com.au