Review: I Love You Now

Review: I Love You Now
Image: Photo: Robert Catto

June and Leo are in a hotel room, tentatively trying to fan into flame a passion that has long gone cold. Seems simple enough so far. But June is having a dalliance with Leo’s twin brother Rob, and her personal trainer, Helmut, as well as the local priest, who is also Rob’s confessor. Leo is seeing his twin brother’s wife, Melissa and seeing the nanny, also called Melissa. Then of course he’s been doing the horizontal tango with his therapist. Each of these characters, incredibly, are played by Jeanette Cronin (who also wrote the play) and Paul Gleeson. As they say in the clichés, ‘It’s ah, complicated’.

The affair. It’s the classic trope of drama not to mention life. It’s risky, it’s intriguing, it’s exciting – but what happens behind the scenes? And what happens when it runs out of steam? I Love You Now, puts the tongue in cheek and pokes fun at the silliness of it all.

The set is a long wide bedroom. Scenes and characters change with the slam of a door – and there is much slamming and changing. Call me slow, but it takes a while to work out what’s going down. Max Lambert and Roger Lock have provided a clever soundscape – with plenty of tango – but putting them behind a glass wall, staring into the bedroom is a little off putting. Or perhaps this is just to highlight the latent voyeurism?

Kim Hardwick’s direction moves things along and there are some very tender and comic moments – Cronin undressing in bed, then having to answer the door is a classic. The challenge for this two-hander is differentiating the characters but maybe that’s the point.

The search for something better just turns out to be something different – and maybe not all that different.

Until Jul 9, Various performance times. Darlinghurst Theatre Company, Eternity Playhouse, 39 Burton Street, Darlinghurst. $38-$54. Tickets & Info: www.darlinghursttheatre.com or PH: 02 8356 9987

Reviewed by Greg Webster.

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