Our six sad, lonely, desperate characters are Bazz, the plumber and part time movie nerd; Nathaniel, the computer geek; Kasey the smarmy, oily guy; Margot the new-age grunge poet; Sally, a country and western chick; and Caroline, the fridge. Sure there are clichés in there but I think each character has enough life blown into them to help them rise above what could become a very predictable evening.

Geoff Alan’s inventive script has the ensemble of six maintain a central role but also portray a number of other characters as we witness them before, after and during their dates. Support roles include numerous James Bonds, Gladiators, waiters, line dancers and poets to support their colleagues in various fantasies. Lack of props and costume changes work well in this piece and it is nice to see a company work with what they had – their talent. It would have been nice to see them given more characterisation within their main roles to play with.

Nicola Cliff as Margot displays a keen sense of underplaying and is maybe the most believable. Always just under the radar and never straying too far from realism, Cliff makes Margot the most intriguing and long before Nathaniel roots out that she’s rebelling against her parents money I think we’d singled her out as the most interesting.

Darren Ludlam leaps from one audience pleasing character to another whilst keeping his central pivot Bazz, as boringly amusing as possible. His brilliant opening line to yet another potential date, “So what do you know about ancient Roman waterways?” is a classic of the script. 

Jonny Hair as Nathaniel does a good line in computer geek, complete with buttoned up cardigan and glasses, relying on predictable laughs but more than proving himself in the ensemble scenes. Joined by Grae Burton in a nice portrayal of Kasey, the token married guy trying to get a one night stand, this male trio works well together, providing many of the belly laughs of the evening; their best efforts being the dancing waiters and the poetry translation scene.

The girls though seem to come into their own in the one-on-ones with their opposite guys. Jo Clark gives a solid showing of a girl who wears her heart on her sleeve and her hobby in her clothes, a country girl and proud of it she is a nice foil to the other city slickers. Gina Timberlake as frigid Caroline proves that there’s always ‘one’ at every gathering: kind, gentle and ‘nice’.

Every character is identifiable, even if straight out of stock, but there were pleasing moans and groans of recognition from the audience. All the general themes you’d expect to find are here, maybe one too many as the point of focus does sometimes get blurred. With no plot as such to follow, the play may benefit from some editing which would make the script as a whole run clear and clean, and then either leave it as a shorter festival piece or, as mentioned, flesh it out with some solid characterisation and back story to fill the two acts. 

With some genuine clever one-liners, some hilarious scenes (the threesome debate for one) and one or two surprises, namely lap dancing and a brilliantly titled poem (I won’t spoil it), Speed Daters is a solid addition to the Fringe.

This review kindly supported by The James Wallace Arts Trust http://www.wallaceartstrust.org.nz/

_______________________________
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.