By Peter Maddern
The use of a (legitimate) massage therapist’s table as the locale for all sorts to let loose on their problems is at the core of this amusing, if ultimately unfulfilling, farce play from Rita Papillo and produced under the Blackbox initiative at the Bakehouse.
Joey’s three patients include James (Chris Roberts), an emotional mess whose physique is in opposite proportion to his emotional age. His two local flirts, Ruby (Katie O’Reilly) and Sarah (Lucy Slattery) disgorge all as they sore spots are worked on by Joey (Robyn Gough) and watched, unmercifully by the walls, Orecchio (Lotte Crawford) and Bochetta (Andrew Cupi) who flippantly and malevolently delight in creating as much discomfort as possible for all concerned.
Director, Lisa Waite, has done a nice job with all her cast sustaining great energy and humour throughout and her near single stage setting of the Joey’s massage room is highly effective. The finale is good fun and the message that perhaps the people we complain most to have more issues than we do is well made.
However, the role of the ears and eyes of the wall are so interfering and so disruptive that rather less would have been more. Also, unlike some similar theatrical characters, these two were somewhat vacuous neither having much clever nor observationally insightful to say to beef up the merit of the story. Prolonged emphasis on precious bodily fluids and gases were cases in point.
Given the role of the Blackbox initiative is to give local playwrights opportunities, the whole production, cast and crew, achieve their aims admirably. And while many will delight in the light heartedness of it all and an enjoyable evening at the theatre is assured, for some at least, a swelling sense of frustration may reign until the last few moments.
Kryztoff Rating 3.5K
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