This production is nothing if not stylish. As you wait for the play to commence, you have to admire the elegant, perfectly appointed, book-lined living room, in carefully graded shades of green and blue, with each item of furniture in finely calibrated balance. This seems the perfect setting for a modern comedy of manners. And so it for the first half at least before a handbrake turn that takes the play in a wholly different, and ultimately unconvincing, direction.
The first twenty minutes or so is set up in a pattern of gay badinage between two couples – Daniel is an emerging starchitect, responsible for the perfect interior we witness, who has shared his life for seven years with Mitchell, a successful writer of gay fiction. Barry, Mitchell’s agent, is a generation older, with a penchant for much younger men, the latest of whom, Trip, appears to be a Gen Z stereotype. There are some witty oneliners and pointed jokes, before a sharper debate emerges around the merits of marriage. It turns out that Daniel does not, in fact, have a husband, with Mitchell as fiercely opposed to the institution as Daniel is convinced it represents an essential completion to their relationship.
This crux then becomes the crisis of the play. Though not before we are introduced to the final character, Daniel’s widowed mother, domineering, dangerously underemployed and a little too gushingly grateful to have a gay son.
There is a lot of sensitive writing here that is wholly convincing both in its grasp of the dynamics of relationships in general and of gay relationships in particular. The ending, in which Daniel and Mitchell recall their first date is exquistely realised in text, tone and tenor. But for me the screeching change of dramatic gears that propels the drama to a special heart of darkness seems more willed than earned, despite the conviction and fervour with which it is put across.
The acting is top-notch across the whole cast as you would expect given the clutch of awards that several of them have received. Joel Harper-Jackson captures Daniel’s charm, poise and intensity, but also gives hints of suppressed anger and pent-up tension that in retrospect seem to hint at the catastrophe to come. Mitchell is an altogether splashier personality, and Luke Fetherston admirably captures his full range. Both of them have two remarkable monologues that are exceptional pieces of technical acting.
David Bedella develops his character from the butt of jokes to become Mitchell’s best buddy in a subtly graded performance, and Raiko Gohara finds sensitivity and depth in Trip’s role as a nurse and companion that fills out fully a character that initially seemed flimsy. As the dominant mother Liza Sadovy has the most difficult arc to travel through the writing, a real tightrope of believability, but she does a sterling job across a gamut of moods.
The play was first performed a decade ago around the time that gay marriage was legalised in the USA; and while gay rights are in some ways just as imperilled now as then, the focus on marriage itself has moved on. After opening up the debate initially, the scales are then emotively tipped in one direction alone that seems arbitrary rather than dramatically justified. Whatever your views on the main issue this seems a limitation, even manipulation, of theatrical possibility that weakens the overall impact of the whole, and leaves the play feeling a bit dated.
That said, the production was cheered to the rafters on press night, and there will undoubtedly be many other reviewers and audiences who will disagree with my take.
By Michael McKeever
Director: Alan Souza
Cast: David Bedella, Luke Fetherston, Raiko Gohara, Joel Harper-Jackson, Liza Sadovy
90 mins, no interval
Until 10 January 2026
Photo Credit: Craig Fuller