Wry humour and great character studies make life-affirming show   

A basement bar in Karangahape Rd provides an appropriate venue for a highly original variation on the classic ‘man walks into a bar’ scenario.

The drama Sexy Buddha sets up a challenging and often amusing encounter between a world-weary bartender and a Buddhist nun who is questioning her commitment to the monastic life.

Geoff Allen’s script displays a keen appreciation of the absurd, a wry sense of humour and a refreshing avoidance of neat resolutions. [More]
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So a Buddhist walks into a bar . . . It sounds like the start of a joke but is in fact the point when this play gets really interesting.

Sexy Buddha is an intriguing juxtaposition of bar room philosophy and eastern religion set in a late night bar on K’ Road on a rainy Tuesday night. In a slightly orchestrated version of life imitating art, this is exactly where you view it, Pull Bar to be exact.

Setting this play in the back bar of this popular K’ Road pool hall gives the audience an instant reference point allowing the story to get on with its more interesting philosophical questions. This does raise the issue of why the opening scene tries to dislocate the audience from the atmosphere they are in, rather than immerse them in it.

After a little bit of a shaky start that for some reason had me recalling soliloquies from Guy Ritchie films, this play gets into its strength which is the dynamic between the two-person cast coming at the philosophy of life from their polar opposite viewpoints: a cocktail bartender and a committed Buddhist nun.

Belinda Whylie pulls off an air of serene calm amazingly well and brings a convincing nature to a character that would not be an easy fit for most people. It is a stark contrast from the bartender played by Simon Clark. He is a little manic by himself but tempers into an easy yet contrasting chemistry with Whylie and it is some of Clark’s well timed quips that bring many of the laugh-out-loud moments to this production.

The ‘play-within-the-play’ scenes explaining some of the philosophies are a little sporadic at times but definitely bring an energy and dynamism to the show, while the visual quality of the cocktails – poured to illustrate our bartender’s somewhat cynical view of human nature – definitely sparked my interest.

I only wish the writing had finished explaining the difference between a shaken and stirred martini and how that describes the human condition – this definitely drew me in but also left me hanging.

A nod has to be given to the costume and set designs which are a solid step up from other plays I have seen recently for a similar ticket price. They give the show a real authenticity and a palette for the actors to work from, as does the decision to perform the play in a real bar.

Sexy Buddha makes dropping into a bar on a cold winter’s night a whole lot more interesting whether you find your spiritual enlightenment in meditation or at the bottom of a glass. 
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For more production details, click on the title above. Go to Home page to see other Reviews, recent Comments and Forum postings (under Chat Back), and News. 

Copyright © in the review belongs to the reviewer