Raise the Hammer
By Michael Wilmot
Directed by John Turner
Featuring Chris Bancroft and Martha Zimmerman
Winner of the 2009 Hamilton Fringe Playwriting Contest, Michael Wilmot writes with confident flair. He captures the easy commonplace dialogue of our times and urban society, the brisk, quick ironic humour of adult verbal intercourse. He's funny. He doesn't waste words and cuts to the possible laugh with the skill that Norm Foster brings to theatrical writing.
In Love Shack he sets a 30-something married man and woman in a seedy motel for a sexual tryst. They are not, however, married to each other. While He is up and horny for this night of lust, She's just a basket-case of hilarious hang-ups from cockroaches to self-loathing.
So while Wilmot makes the most of all this with rich humour, and the actors Bancroft and Zimmerman bring considerable polish and skill to their performances, the Director has let them but skim the glassy surface. However funny it all is, the action never probes very far beneath the lines.
The best laughs are not in the lines themselves, but in the characters using them to let us into themselves. Not of lot of that was evident in last night's production. Well, good marks for pacing and business, staging and technical expertise. All involved are worth the price, but the writing could be better served with some probing beneath the humour.
TNgM.
By redwinger (anonymous) | Posted July 20, 2009 at 10:34:35
Dear Mr Mackan,
A PLOT SPOILER ALERT would be appropriate here out of respect and as a common courtesy to this production and its prospective audience members.
Peace
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