Alex & Eve: The Complete Story
The phenomenon of Alex and Eve culminates in Alex & Eve: The Complete Story.
This charming and unpretentious love story about an unconventional Australian couple was introduced to its greatest audiences when it was adapted into the popular 2015 film. But before they made it to the screen, Alex and Eve first met on stage where their riotous love affair and feuding families spawned three plays.
Writer Alex Lykos is delighted to see The Complete Story return after the 2013 staging, which attracted the attention and investors, which launched the film.
Lykos was first inspired to write Alex & Eve as a counterpart to all the television and cinema based around the psyche of single, childless women in their 30s that surrounded him in the early 2000’s. His “male Bridget Jones” soon evolved however to encompass religious issues, as he pondered what his Greek Orthodox parents would make of it he were to bring home a Lebanese Muslim partner.
“All the characters are misguided rather than out and out racists, it’s their ignorance which is at play rather than out and out hatred,” explains Lykos.
After numerous theatre companies disregarded his script, the first Alex & Eve was eventually staged by the newly founded Bulldog Theatre Company in late 2006. After being forced to shut down the second performance due to low tickets sales, things soon turned around and by the end of the season they were forced to turn away patrons as they filled the 150-seat venue.
Alex & Eve: The Complete Story combines and condenses the original Alex & Eve with sequels Alex & Eve: The Wedding (2009) and Alex & Eve: The Baby (2011). Lykos says he sacrificed certain sub-plots in order to “tell the story, not just the good bits…[of] two people who fall in love whose major obstacle is their parents and their communities”.
This production marks the tenth anniversary of this whirlwind Australian romantic comedy. It’s a perfect opportunity for fans of the play to revisit, for fans of the movie to see the roots and “what happens next”, and for first timers to become besotted with this endearing tale. (AM)
Aug 25–28. Factory Theatre, 105 Victoria Road, Marrickville. $14-$18.40. Tickets & info: www.bulldogtheatre.com or www.factorytheatre.com.au
