Stephen Fitzgibbon and Benedict Wall play Vince and Jon, old friends since school.  They are meeting this night at Vince’s motel room in the Michigan town that is premiering Jon’s new film.  When Jon arrives they immediately begin verbally shadow boxing, playfully at first.  It’s made apparent that they had a girlfriend in common, Amy (Hannah Marshall), who lives in this very town working as an assistant attorney.

Invited by Vince, Amy herself enters in later in the piece, thrust fairly headlong into what has developed into a tense standoff between the boys.  Generally the hour long real-time tale is well suspended, and the levels between lucid debate and highly strung scrapping play through like an hour long rollercoaster ride. 

It’s a testament to the spunky young cast that they’re all younger than their 28 year old characters.  As Vince, Fitzgibbons is outgoing and articulate, exhibiting a fresh energy seared with clearly volatile undercurrents.  Wall’s Jon has subtle shades of sanctimonious arrogance of a self-made man on the brink of success, laced with paralysing denial and guilt.  Marshall fairly glows as Amy, the classically self-assured modern career woman, perhaps more vulnerable below her confident surface than she claims?

As the confrontations come to a head, each character’s tune changes enough times that it’s difficult to be certain who’s pretending what, exactly.  Although the action takes place often at very close proximity (a couple of times I was bumped by Fitzgibbon in the front row), the performance is detached just enough so that the ride is not as visceral as it might otherwise be for the audience.  Nonetheless Craig Hall’s directorial debut is satisfactorily tense and tight and the upshot is an accessible work about alienated relationships.

Unfortunately the programme offers no credit for the well-assembled set and costume design, lit with perfunctory grace by Michael Craven by the hand of light/sound operator Jatinder Singh. 

Apologies are due to the company for the tardiness of this review.  It has been a busy week and unfortunately this has just got online on closing night.  I hope that it serves them well for any future projects they may get to undertake, most deservedly.  Something local perhaps?

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