Sign In

X

Stage Review: Blue Lane’s Closer

Blue Lane's sophomore production, Closer opens its run at Strictly Designers United -- love and miasma at Wharf 1846.
Last updated: 2015-11-09


What do we want? PAINFULLY CONCENTRATED SCENES OF INTENSE EMOTIONAL DISTRESS TO WHICH WE CAN ALL ON SOME FUNDAMENTAL LEVEL RELATE! When do we want them? AS OFTEN AS POSSIBLE; BUT IDEALLY NOW. In answer to that cry (you were crying that, right?), Blue Lane are staging a production of Patrick Marber’s Closer -- a play that holds a mirror to the passionate yet innately fickle collective romantic soul of our species. Or something.



Directed by Charlie Mayer, the play revolves around the initial meetings, overlaps and eventual breakups of two sets of couples. Whether you’ve seen a stage production or the film adaptation before, or whether you’re just a human who has, at some point in your past, attempted some type of interaction with any other human, the plot’s territory should be immediately familiar. With that in mind, the possibility that you already know what happens isn’t really an issue here. Having prior knowledge of every twist and turn doesn’t significantly affect the experience, because the plot is a secondary feature.

More important in a successful production of this play is achieving a high degree of relatability in the onstage happenings. In this, Marber’s script only does a fraction of the work; the rest is down to the actors. The four cast members -- flanked by ominously silent black-hooded stage hands/human scenery -- give performances as absorbing and moving as they should be in a play with little else going on. The contrasting approaches of the female half of the cast complement one another very well, with Emilie Ohana being particularly excellent as Anna -- a role which she couldn’t possibly inhabit more perfectly.

Of course, if you met any of these characters in real life you’d probably be more likely to indulge in a hearty eye-rolling than to want to spend any more time with them, much less leave your partner for them. They’re all very credibly awful though, with the possible exception of Jim Bennett’s Dan. In Bennett’s portrayal of someone with a chronically stunted romantic attention span, Dan comes off as a bit too extreme, a bit too immature. We are, after all, to accept that this man could lure not one but two women into obviously doomed relationships during the course of the play. Yet if he’s meant to be even remotely charming, we certainly never see any evidence of it. This is an obstacle to suspension of disbelief; but it’s not jarring enough to undermine an otherwise convincing production.

The best reason not to go and see Closer would be if you have recently suffered a breakup and the wounds are still raw. Certainly you should steer clear if that breakup featured one or more of the following elements: infidelity; sandwiches with the crusts cut off; any of the parties involved getting their sleaze on at a strip club. Barring all those circumstances -- or indeed if those circumstances do apply to you, but you’re a sucker for a good wallow -- you’re likely to find Blue Lane are as good as their word (OK, their program’s words) when it comes to bringing Shanghai a higher standard of theater.



Blue Lane’s Closer runs from June 7 to June 19 at Strictly Designers United. 180rmb (presale)/ 200rmb on the door. For tickets call 139 1763 4907. No performance on June 10, 11 and 12. For a full listing and ticket info click here.

TELL EVERYONE