Articles by Kate Prendergast,Peter McCallum

Entertainment

Wit, whisky and late-in-life lust collide in surprising ways

“It’s her or me!” she delivers in her ultimatum to Milo. Davie – a simple man, whom we are introduced to in the first scene by a roar of self-satisfied early ejaculation – actually seems a bit smitten by the charming young woman with the cute and ready smile. She listens to his stories and appreciates his record collections. But he’s hardly one to stand up to his sharp-tongued wife. Of course when it’s mounted by Outhouse Theatre, you know that what is kneejerk outrageous or ostensibly taboo is in for a sound dramatic wringing. To borrow from the dialogue of Greta (Aisha Aidara), these guys “don’t flinch”. The company, founded by Waters, has been consistently impressive that way – bringing first-rate modern plays (largely from the US and UK) to rattle our certainties: first with a riotous comedy of manners, then a finely tuned choreography of radical compassion, as human relations run the gamut of clashing preconceptions, are broken open in their frailties, and – with great pain and tenderness – made gingerly anew. Actor and writer Sam O’Sullivan matches form with his directorial debut. What do we risk by being absolutely uncompromising in our battles? What are we willing to sacrifice for our convictions, and what does it take to examine them in a real and immediate context? And, at the centre of this particular play, what right do even those closest to us have to tell us who and how we love? Lord knows it’s never been frictionless for a friendship group to absorb a new romantic partner, no matter the particulars.