In Winding Up, Roger Hall fleshes out characters Barry and Gen from his earlier work Conjugal Rites. Photo / Michael Craig
In Winding Up, Roger Hall fleshes out characters Barry and Gen from his earlier work Conjugal Rites. Photo / Michael Craig
Winding Up Written by Roger Hall Directed by Kate Louise Elliott Centrepoint Theatre March 31 Reviewed by Damian Thorne
If Chloe Swarbrick were to find herself in the audience of Roger Hall's latest play she may forego applause and simply hold up a sign saying "okay boomer".
Hall aims directly at his target marketof affluent white folk and hits an absolute bullseye.
In today's uncertain times the financial side of this endeavour stacks up nicely. It's a co-production with Christchurch's Court Theatre, meaning the risk is halved and being a Roger Hall it should easily get the bums on seats of the aforementioned demographic.
Instead of new characters, Hall fleshes out Barry and Gen from his earlier work Conjugal Rites. It's a nice touch that will only land with hardcore Hall fans - without researching I would have been none the wiser.
The couple seem to live a good life, and seem to still be loved up in their twilight years. Complete with the prerequisite indifferent children on the other end of a seriously overused landline, carpet samples to trip over (again and again and again), and the usual Hall peripheral characters, albeit in the dialogue only with it being a two hander, the everyday life of the couple unfolds in front of an extraordinary lit mural by designer Richard Van Den Berg.
A play with only two actors can be a dangerous vehicle and in the wrong hands this dialogue would not make for a fun experience. Hadlow and Darien Takle are so good they might have been reading the phone book and we wouldn't have noticed.
Their chemistry transcended the performance and carried over into the Q&A after the show as they relaxed comfortably into each other like a couple married as long as Barry and Gen. There is an extraordinary amount of physical action the actors handle with aplomb.
I mentioned all the tripping; there is elderly chocolate wrestling, an incident inserting a hearing aid that was actually straight out of my house as I struggle to insert my mother's devices every morning, and a poignant moment of choreography.
Director Kate Louise Elliott has an ability to get laughs out of any material and here she has done such good work of widening the play's appeal by making Hall's world thoroughly entertaining for everybody – complete with adding her dad's favourite armchair.
Don't go to Winding Up expecting a couple racing around on a Vespa as the marketing material will have you believe. It's sometimes as beige as the set, but the actors give a serious tour-de-force and I thoroughly enjoyed being among the near-capacity audience who were loudly showing their appreciation.
