MATTHEW, MARK, LUKE & JOANNE

The Court Theatre, Bernard Street, Addington, Christchurch

09/04/2016 - 07/05/2016

Production Details



Sophisticated New Zealand Comedy Goes Beyond Belief  

The world première of the comedy Matthew, Mark, Luke and Joanne by award winning writer Carl Nixon opens at The Court Theatre on 9th April.

Matthew, Mark, Luke and Joanne tells the story of Matthew, who in the midst of a mid-life crisis has a cosmic – and spiritual – experience in the Organic, Ethnic and Gluten Free aisle of his local supermarket. This profound change cannot be accepted by Joanne, his wife and Mark, his best friend and business partner. Luke never appears on stage – you just have to have faith that he exists.

The play was commissioned by The Court in 2014. Carl Nixon has been perfecting the script through revisions and development and honed the rich nugget into this polished piece.

“I wanted to programme a sophisticated New Zealand comedy and when the right one couldn’t be found The Court commissioned Carl to write one,” says Court Artistic Director, Ross Gumbley. “From his very first draft, Carl caught the genre we were after. A very funny, contemporary, sophisticated comedy. Reminiscent of the plays of the French writer Yasmina Reza, who wrote Art and God of Carnage.”

Matthew, Mark, Luke and Joanne is a comedy about faith and its virtues, or otherwise, in our modern world. Carl Nixon says “I wanted to write an amusing play about an important issue. What are the values we live by and where do they come from? What happens when our values rub up against those of our friends and family?”

To bring this sparkling new play to the stage The Court has assembled a stellar team. Steven Ray takes the reins as director. Steven last played on The Court stage as an actor in Mary Poppins. His last direction for The Court was another Carl Nixon comedy The Birthday Boy.

Tom Peters, fresh from his critically acclaimed portrayal of Banquo in Macbeth, takes the central role of Matthew. “This has been a real delight for me to come to The Court and act in two such diverse plays. To be able to go from the tragedy of Macbeth to the hilarity of Matthew, Mark, Luke and Joanne has been a real blessing.”

Luanne Gordon is taking the role of Tom’s wife, Joanne – who is both new age and neurotic. Luanne will be known to Christchurch audiences for her many film and television roles including Hope and Wire, Shortland Street and The Strip. Rounding out the cast is Dunedin actor Phil Vaughan, who plays Matthew’s business partner Mark, a man for whom life is a breeze – providing he has the latest model iphone, tablet and European sports car.

MATTHEW, MARK, LUKE & JOANNE
On the Tonkin and Taylor Main Stage at The Court Theatre
9 April – 7 May 2016
Show sponsored by Newstalk ZB
To Book phone 03 963 0870 or visit www.courttheatre.org.nz.
Tickets $57-$28
Show Times:
Opening Night: Saturday 9th April, 7.30pm
Post Show Forum: Monday 11th April, 6.30pm
Matinee: Saturday 30th April, 2.00pm
Monday & Thursday: 6.30pm
Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday & Saturday: 7.30pm


CAST: 
Tom Peters: Matthew Sullivan 
Luanne Gordon: Joanne Sullivan-Smith 
Phil Vaughan: Mark Ray 

PRODUCTION TEAM: 
Carl Nixon: Playwright
Steven Ray: Director
Nigel Kerr: Set Designer
Sarah Douglas: Costume Designer
Giles Tanner: Lighting Designer
Sean Hawkins: Sound Designer
Christy Lassen: Properties Co-ordinator
Jo Bunce: Stage Manager
Hamish Oliver: Music Editing
Ronny Hiller: Operator 


Theatre ,


A nice balance of ideas and humour

Review by Lindsay Clark 10th Apr 2016

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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