Europe
Image: Photo: Kurt Sneddon, Blueprint Studios

When Aussie bloke, Douglas, and European actress, Barbara, have a fleeting fling in Australia they leave it like many holiday romances – they’ll try and “see each other again.” But when hopeful Douglas flies to Europe to see if he can rekindle the affair, Barbara is wary. Over the next 24 hours, they wander through a quintessential European city talking, arguing, flirting and ultimately discovering more about each other.

While the play is ostensibly a romance between Barbara and Douglas, the deeper love affair is the one of Australia for Europe.

“Australia looks to Europe as the kind of mature, cultured civilisation that has much to inform us of,” says director James Beach. “It’s that whole thing about the cultural cringe. We might be starting to shake it off but those issues are still things we talk about all the time.”

Although Michael Gow’s comedy Europe was written in 1987, Australia’s continuing fascination with the continent still makes it relevant today.

“More Australians will have a direct personal experience of what it is to go that far, to see those things, to test the limits of their personality, and have those flings that probably weren’t possible when this was written,” says Beach. (MT)

Sep 10-27, Seymour Centre, City Rd & Cleveland St, Chippendale, $25-38, (02) 9351 7940, seymourcentre.com

BY MELODY TEH

 

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