When a theatre gets struck by lightning on the night of a performance you generally expect things to be a little bit different. After leaving the comforts of Chez Cyrille and trudging through a drenched side street, I was certainly ready to be amused and on the whole, Mellow Drama's production of Unoriginal Sin delivered.
In fact, one of the evening's funnier moments happened before the play even started when a little white dog (presumably seeking shelter from the rain) somehow found his way into the Manoel and was busy racing through the aisles, tailed by several distraught ushers. The safety curtain, stuck in place by the power-outage, finally went up and the Manoel was suddenly filled with music, courtesy of Katy Perry. An interesting choice.
Written by David Tristram and directed by Steve Casaletto, the story takes place in a single, gaudily decorated room inside the exclusively located country cottage of power-couple Jenny and Bill.
They're going through a bitter divorce and plenty of the jokes stem from this tension, with both characters' infidelity thrown in the others' face at the slightest provocation. Bill, a successful writer of romance novels (think Mills and Boon) despises his job and wants to abandon the world of London publishing to become a playwright – Jenny has never worked a day in her life and doesn't intend to.
At the centre of the story, and genuinely exciting to watch, was John Montanaro's Bill. At once witty and naive, capable of tenderness and off the cuff bonhomie, Montanaro embodied the character and helped nudge the play out of the doldrums into something quite special. Which isn't to say Louiselle Vassallo didn't match him in moments, playing spoilt wife Jenny (though she really was more Sliema than Sloane Square) eviscerating her hapless husband with a flick of her hair while indulging in tasteless retail therapy.
It's almost as if the characters can't decide whether they're promiscuous decadents going through the motions, or if the bluff really is all smoke and mirrors and beneath the glacial jibes beat hearts full of hope.
In Montanaro's case, the promise is made good and we're allowed to see something deeper than farce. Considering the script, it's certainly the performance we should be applauding.
Steffan Cherriet Busuttil's turn as Jeremy (Jenny's divorce lawyer) was very loud, and that's my lasting impression. Sound and fury, signifying... still, by portraying Jeremy in such a blustery way I was put in mind of certain first year Law students, so the caricature was there and in its own way the performance worked.
The story moves on when Bill, in the process of selling the country cottage to appease his money-grubbing wife, meets Eve. Charmed and disarmed by her apparent innocence, the two strike up an unconventional friendship.
Eve is the adopted daughter of a Catholic priest (played adequately by Barry Calvert) and long suffering girlfriend to Neville, the librarian. Now, the only librarians I know are anything but dull, however this doesn't hold true for Neville who hasn't so much as touched Eve throughout their relationship. While this is just what her father likes to hear, Eve is more than ready to take the plunge.
Faye Paris portrayed Eve with terrific vivacity and demonstrated herself to be an excellent physical comedienne. Eve was at once shy and inquisitive, reflective but hysterical, a walking paradox.
In one of the evening's funniest moments, the 24-year-old virgin gets drunk and offers herself to Bill, only to be gently rebuffed because the writer's feelings run far deeper than a one night stand.
Paris pulled off the role (and most of her clothes) with enough enthusiasm for guffaws to be heard all the way up in the gods.
As the snivelling and socially-inept Neville, Jean-Pierre Agius was something of a mystery. The audience loved every minute of it, erupting into laughter at the slightest provocation.
Perhaps people were in a generous mood, possibly trying to convince themselves that a night ensconced in the theatre, ignoring a raging storm, made every line worth the laughs. Still, the character was awkward and insufferable and the progression (where Neville ultimately goes postal) was predictable, but Agius managed to liven things up and created an amusing personality sketch in the process.
With talent like Montanaro and his fellow cast members ready to be put to good use, it seems a shame that the material doesn't always come up to scratch. Here's hoping Mellow Drama's future offerings live up to the potential of their cast and the eagerness of audiences to enjoy a night at the theatre just as much as the actors do.