3 STARS, May 8-12. A dark new comedy about the state of the nation and the thin veneer of contemporary life, says Andrew Morris
Simon Annand
Caroline Mortimer is one of those women with a seemingly golden life. Just turned 50, she has a successful TV career as a cook, filmed in the perfect kitchen in her perfect north London home, a wealthy husband, intelligent children and is writing a book.
But once the camera and lights are turned off, is the reality different from the glossy veneer?
Like a dodgy soufflé, Caroline's life slowly collapses around her - and us - in Monogamy, a new play by Torben Betts and showing at the Yvonne Arnaud in Guildford from Tuesday 8th May to Saturday 12th May.
The entire performance is played out as a single scene, and with one stage design - the perfect kitchen in the perfect north London home.
Caroline (Janie Dee) is unwinding with a few glasses of wine after filming the last episode in her current series. Her temporary assistant Amanda (Genevieve Gaunt) has morphed from a heavily-accented Swedish chef into a cocaine-fuelled high-energy mobile phone-addicted London PR-fixer, trying to minimise the damage from some embarrassing paparazzi photos of Caroline on a drunken night out. Leo, Caroline's son, has just returned home with a first-class degree from Cambridge, together with some startling news that he knows will upset his controlling, traditional parents.
Simon Annand
Caroline and her older golf-playing husband Mike have employed muscled builder Graeme for the last four months to refurbish the house. They are downsizing, to free up some capital for their children and to start a new life in Cornwall.
But as Caroline prepares a celebratory family meal for Leo, the thin veneer of respectability in everyone's life is unpeeled by the astute playwright. Leo is badgering his Mum for not having told Mike something important, and for not answering his calls over the last few months. Amanda is grieving after a tough childhood and the recent death of her own mother. Caroline has been so busy with the TV series and the book, looking after her sick mother in the west country and managing the house improvements…which seem to have brought her rather close to Graeme.
Enter a scarlet-faced Mike (Patrick Ryecart) in a blaze of sexist, homophobic, bullying hole-in-one glory, a bit of a blustering dinosaur who thinks everything can be sorted out with money, and who may have occasionally strayed from the path of monogamy. And Sally (Charlie Brooks), mistaken at first for house-hunting Mrs Minto but who turns out to be the mentally fragile wife of Graeme, desperate not to lose her husband to Caroline.
And with all those knives lying around, anything could happen amongst these angst-ridden souls.....
Simon Annand
As Torben Betts says in the programme notes: "I'm always trying to get under the skins of various people. And the characters in this play are all damaged by their past, and are carrying their heavy histories around with them."
Monogamy is a parable for our times, with sharp observations about contemporary life and people. But it does descend into farce, a bit like Brian Rix with a social conscience, as issues of the day are ticked off by the playwright - racism, sexism, homophobia, generational wealth imbalances, mental health, God and faith, monogamy and infidelity. And the second half does tend to become a little 'shouty' before the final tragic dénouement and a moment of calm clarity after the fire and brimstone storm.
Monogamy is on a short national tour before heading for London. Produced by The Original Theatre Company and by Ghost Light Theatre, it will no doubt evolve as the weeks pass but Guildford theatre-goers should feel privileged to see such an innovative and thought-provoking play so early in its gestation.
Special mention must go to Jack Archer for playing young, idealistic and abandoned Leo so convincingly, and to Genevieve Gaunt for embracing the role of fragile Amanda with such nose-twitching brio. And to Patrick Ryecart, who clearly revels in playing self-absorbed, bigoted and outdated Mike.
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