The Next Best Thing is a delightful comedy of four mates who are looking for love. They’re through with the chasing and the getting and the moving on and are looking for the big R. By embarking on ‘how women do it’ we follow their experiences of how that might look. Chaz Harris is the writer/director/producer and my companion nails it when, at the end, he says “Well, someone’s got dating issues.” This is later borne out by the director’s notes.

The play is a set of vignettes following Alex (Ben Whatson) the bar owner who’s been burnt by his partner leaving him for the younger co-worker (the bar’s name, ‘Orphans’, could be a tie-in to the all-male, all love-seeking trio on the Propeller Stage); Matt (Tai Mackenzie) the gym guy with the crush from afar; Ryan (Will Moffatt) the over-thinking, over-analysing blogger; and Lee (Shane Murphy) the lawyer who can’t help but bed hot people who aren’t looking for anything more than what’s in his briefs.

Along the way we meet Gina (Catherine Zulver), Alex’s wise cracking barmaid who tells it like it is; Amanda (Jayne Grace), the Gym Receptionist who is the outgoing yin to Matt’s shy yang; Daniel (David Lancaster), visiting temptation for Lee; and Roberto (Chromatic Semitone), who turns Alex’s bar into a porno storyline.

Harris neatly avoids stereotypes within a format (Friends, Will & Grace, etc.) that usually pushes for it. The characters are well defined and separate, and each is deftly played by his actor. We’re in the territory of Boys In The Band meets Queer Folk meets Jeffrey meets Sex in The City – rhapsodizing around how to find the ‘real thing’ in the modern world of love and dating.

It is something of an indictment that a bunch of 20-somethings are forlornly seeing that 30 means they’re on the shelf, and that that is the age someone becomes a Daddy. As a 50-something Daddy I have a real good chuckle at that. And there are many great lines and moments in this comedy – luckily it never gets morose – keeping us amused at the insight and lack thereof of the characters. However some better direction would get us to the summative last scene with a better thump.

With so many short scenes it feels like I’m watching a TV script and I would have liked the characters to have more time to develop in front of my eyes. This is helped somewhat by direct address monologues. Tai Mackenzie’s tale of ‘The Showers’ is a gift from the playwright, so achingly written one suspects it is autobiographical, and beautifully acted with candid vulnerability. But I begin to yearn for a scene longer than two minutes.

The (uncredited) set creates locations around the stage for the scenes but the centre stage is dominated by two benches that force the actors to keep upstage. Mostly this works but there are times when the benches are simply in the way. The lights (Becky Thronton-Hoggs) are fine and adept but I wonder if more could be done to support the scenes.

Certainly more attention to sound is called for – in the Park (?) when Matt and Ryan meet I barely hear the birds and only then work out they are outside. Stronger offers here would work well, especially with the number of unsupported black outs which means loads of scuttling shoes in the dark.

Is this play saying anything new? My companions and I think not, but that is not to say it must. This is a solid script that gives voice to the male as he tries to find a relationship and how that feels. The expressing of this need of feeling in young men is an important voice and this is a play where it speaks well. I feel there is more to be mined here and wish another set of eyes other than the writer had directed it.

My companion and I agree this could be the first act of a longer, sturdier piece. We still have a good laugh and were touched by the honesty of this production. Well worth a look.  

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