By Lisa Clark
There’s comedy for everyone at The Melbourne International Comedy festival. Here there is no standup, impro or clowning. Instead we have a terrific short comedic play in which we witness a conversation on a couch between a married couple who know each other very well… or do they?
A Couple Decides What to have for Dinner is written and directed by James Hazelden and stars Amanda Buckley and Chris Saxton as the deciding couple. Its not hit you over the head obvious, but Chris Saxton is very much the hapless silly sidekick to Amanda Buckley’s savvy straight gal. A husband/wife dynamic familiar to most sitcom fans.
It’s lovely to have theatre troupes in Melbourne with their own style and Mystery Radio Theatre does dialogue based theatrical shows that are also funny. So it’s not surprising that this show might make a pretty good radio show, as the couple never leaves their couch and rarely look away from a TV, whose programs cannot be particularly entertaining, as they talk all the way through whatever is on. It’s a very simple set and a play that can be easily staged with only two actors.
The play does what it says on the box, an entertaining exploration of a middle aged couple’s relationship while they spend an hour deciding what to have for dinner. The bickering can get a bit much here and there, and may be a little triggering for people brought up in abusive households, but it mellows as the couple shares interesting anecdotes and gossip and never crosses the line to anger or abuse. Unlike the abhorent and shouty Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf we are presented with a couple who love each other, though there is annoyance and teasing, but they remain reasonable (if exasperatingly so at times) with no hot anger or nastiness. There is some getting to know one another throughout the play which deepens their relationship rather than pulling it apart.
I think this play actually helped me understand Waiting for Godot a little. The famous play where nothing happens, reflecting on the mundane interactions of life, how life isn’t all about the exciting stuff, mostly it’s just waiting or having the same conversations going round and round eternally. Where Godot was so boring that people angrily walked out of early performances, A Couple Decides What to have for Dinner does it in a relatable modern context with warmth, laughs and a cracker of a joke at the end.
This show is having a short run at The Butterfly Club until Sunday March 30 so get in quick before it ends.
https://www.comedyfestival.com.au/browse-shows/a-couple-decides-what-to-have-for-dinner/
