All New People & the Leisure Society

Now to catch up on a couple of plays.

These two are both new plays with a cast of 4 and a 90 minute run time with no interval. And they are both funny as well as dramatic.

All New People stars Zach Braff of Scrubs fame (for those who follow that US comedy series). Although he may be the "name" to sell the play, its a pretty even cast actually in terms of dialogue and ability. No one carried the play (in contrast let's say to David Haig's starring role in Madness of King George). It starts with the Braff character about to hang himself in a beach house lent to him by a friend. He is interrupted by a scatty English woman who has been hired to try and find new permanent tenants, and later joined by her fireman boyfriend, (or rather just male friend as she doesn't actually love him) and a prostitute (sorry, escort) hired by the absent friend and sent over to cheer Braff up. The play is not the sort of toe-curlingly cheesy one you might imagine where three strangers make the potential suicide realise how wonderful life really is, but rather its one of revelations about all their lives. Its a bit of a mixed media performance too, since at 4 points during the play the action freezes, a screen comes down and there is a short filmed sequence, each time revealing the back story of the 4 characters as to how they ended up here.

Altogether well-acted, funny and sharp. A satisfying evening.

This Monday's play was The Leisure Society, similar in basic format (without the film sequences) but on a much smaller scale. It was at the Trafalgar Studio 2 which is frankly tiny. It was like watching a play in a large living room. I guess the capacity was only 100 ranged around the stage (well just centre floor really - there are no barriers between actors and audience). No set beyond a table, couple of sofas and a piano. And a baby monitor, the baby's presence revealed only through regular crying noises as a rather horridly self-centred American couple had a friend and his young girlfriend (who wasn't a girlfriend as she didn't love him) around for dinner. Again very sharp, witty dialogue, which should probably put one off (a) marriage, (b) babies and/or (c) threesomes.

The important thing to remember about both plays is not to take them seriously. They aren't trying to convey any particularly deep moral insights (I hope), but they are very amusing in a bitter acerbic sort of way. I hope next week's theatre visit is as good. Watch this space!