Commissioned by The Court in 2014, this première production of Carl Nixon’s latest play is tagged as a ‘comedy beyond belief’. It is certainly a comedy about belief, bursting with instances of the apparent absurdity of conviction to those not themselves in its grip. Its three way relationship structure is an economical way of presenting personalities and questioning their attitudes. Beyond that, both playwright and astute director Steven Ray explore the comic implications of following blindly the rules laid down by someone else. 

Matthew Sullivan (played by Tom Peters) and Joanne Sullivan-Smith (Luanne Gordon) are a well-established couple until Matthew, reaching for a pack of coffee at the supermarket, experiences an epiphany which catapults him into a changed existence. His best mate and partner in their advertising business, Mark Ray (Phil Vaughan, is at first perplexed and ultimately alienated by the new man. His own values are honed on the grindstone of commerce and no less obsessional.  Wife Joanne, is similarly shocked to find she has a Christian husband, clinging herself to a set of wise rules for life from her yoga teacher. The interplay of assertion and rejection provides the fuel for the play and of course its irrepressible humour.

That there is no real change in the wilful certainty of the characters is no doubt part of the overall message, but dramatically it does limit a sense of development. If each character is indeed a disciple of one sort or another, as is referenced by the title, they make light of any challenges which arise in the course of things.

Matthew sells out to his partner, whose actions he sees as reprehensible; Mark goes on as before but with a new luxury car he has acquired through dodgy means, although the final moments of the play suggest his world is not impregnable; Joanne tells us that she eventually remarries, but gives no clue that her implacable and vehement rejection of Christianity is dented. Luke is only referred to in the course of Mark’s car venture and we can be pretty confident that his deals are always out there for those in the know.

Nigel Kerr’s set stretches across the stage as a series of panels, obliquely suggesting at once uncompromising modernity and city buildings. Specific locations are simply explained by the characters or indicated by props – a couple of latte cups for a café, a yoga mat for Joanne’s sessions. Sometimes it is lighting from Giles Tanner or an appropriate sound prompt from Sean Hawkins that does the job. This treatment  allows for fluid stepping from one scene to the next, or very likely back to the one before, as the three characters recount what happened when … 

It is a device well suited to quick sparky dialogue pumping out clichéd expressions which are nevertheless very funny when delivered with the rigid conviction of their spokesperson. Matthew’s ‘reservoir of love’, Joanne’s ‘energy flow’ and Mark’s commercial fixation generate a wealth of good natured send-ups and give the playwright’s undoubtedly keen ear for contemporary dialogue abundant material.

Given they are so forcefully defined at the start of what is essentially a play about ideas, the characters do not have a lot of room to explore internal conflicts or indeed to round out their roles with much subtlety. Nevertheless, they make an absorbing prospect, progressing from one situation to the next.  

As Matthew, who initiates the whole caboodle when he reaches for that fateful Arabica coffee from the supermarket, Tom Peters makes a strong bid for the “last socially acceptable scapegoat” of our times: the genuinely loving Christian. His comically bewildered business partner, Mark, is played with great gusto by Phil Vaughan. Responding in an altogether more confrontational manner, though no less hilarious, is his wife Joanne, as rendered by Luanne Gordon.  

Their doings and undoings are well received on opening night, with warm applause for the author in Row H, confirming that he and the team have delivered another successful smoothie with a nice balance of ideas and humour in the mix.

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