In the cosmos of the credit card cosmopolitan, those who have the biggest deck carry the big stick of social status. That’s the central plank in THE UNSPEAKABLE ITCH, the latest collaboration of Kate Smith and Drew Fairley, a “till debt do us part” bomb-com now playing at The Darlinghurst Theatre.
The play opens with the couple quibbling over a naming ceremony for their imminent pride and joy – a teak deck. It’s a rich joke – a swipe at the sacred by the profane – a kind of christening of consumerism.
Smith and Fairley play power partners Bec and Matt Shakespeare, dual income no kids Bondi set who face the proverbial seven year itch. Their lives have become moribund by moolah and it is filthy lucre that lures Matt into infidelity with his employer, Belle. Bec is tempted by Baz who has blown in from Britain.
THE UNSPEAKABLE ITCH is really an overstretched sketch with songs.
The performer’s voices are amplified presumably so that they can be heard over the playback tracks but in the straight dialogue scenes this effect is distracting and discombobulating. As is the use of the use of stage mist, a slide show and film projection, it would appear for little purpose other than padding.
The songs by Phil Scott aren’t bad but in the intimate space of the Darlo they really don’t need amplification especially since the two performers are quite able to belt it out.
Both actors are more than adequate in their antics, but it’s Smith who steals the show with her arch doyen realtor, Belle, in tacky gold tracky, a predatory property purveyor who is the personification of someone who knows the price of everything but the value of nothing.
There are certainly flashes of fun, but not every joke is a gem and the timing seems off. There’s an itch to laugh but much of the comedy comes coated in calamine so the production is antipruritic rather than astringent.
Nothing a shorter version wouldn’t fix.
THE UNSPEAKABLE ITCH, originally commissioned by the Merrigong Theatre Company, opened at the Darlinghurst Theatre Company, 19 Greenknowe Avenue, Potts Point on Wednesday 12th June and plays until Sunday 8th July, 2012.
© Richard Cotter
21st June, 2012
Tags: Sydney Theatre Reviews- THE UNSPEAKABLE ITCH, Darlinghurst Theatre Company, Drew Fairley, Kate Smith, Phil Scott, Merrigong Theatre Company, Sydney Arts Guide, Richard Cotter.