REASONS TO BE PRETTY
- Author:
- Michelle Porter
- Posted:
- Sunday, 13 May 2012
Reasons To Be Pretty certainly opens with a bang. Steph (Julia Grace) screams and rages with loads of obscenities at long-time boyfriend, Greg (Andrew Henry) for a comment he made about her looks to best buddy, Kent (Stephen James King) and his wife, Carly (Lucy Maunder).
Although apologetic, nothing Greg says can pacify Steph and she walks out. And so the story begins as Greg then sets out to prove his love while negotiating the influences of Kent’s womanising ways.
An adaptation of Neil Labute’s Tony Award-winning play, the themes of Reasons To Be Pretty concern the universal arguments between men and women about beauty, attraction and the consequences of love gone wrong. While these are enough to keep you engaged in the story, creating some humourous and thoughtful moments, unfortunately the play never really takes off. Somehow it remains flat and slow.
This might relate to the way it was written, its direction, the energy between the actors, or all of the above. However, what redeems this is the performance from Andrew Henry, who was also outstanding in The Chronic-ills of Robert Zimmerman aka Bob Dylan last year, playing Greg with a quiet vulnerability, which is both endearing and fascinating.
Until Jun 3, Darlinghurst Theatre Company, 19 Greenknowe Ave, Potts Point, $30-38, 8356 9987, darlinghursttheatre.com
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Story posted on Sunday, 13 May 2012, filed under Theatre & Performance. Follow responses via the RSS feed.
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