Hall has produced a witty, acerbic script featuring sharply defined characters, sardonic asides, funny monologues and intense poignancy. The play is about the New Zealand consciousness and focuses on a quartet of retirees at opposite ends of the economic spectrum. Ex librarian, bookworm, art gallery-attending Labour voters Adrian (Michael Ross) and Alison (Sharon Flanagan) are just about to embark on the trip of a lifetime to Italy with old friends, when a broken ankle means the friends can longer travel. Instead, they end up travelling with their well off, National voting neighbors Harry (Henry Szeps), who ran a lucrative plumbing business before retiring, and his wife Judy (Mary Regan).
The stage is set for misunderstandings, major and minor adjustments for both couples, gentle and not so gentle teasing and bickering.
As the narrator, Adrian, Ensemble stalwart Ross is terrific. He gives a deadpan delivery of the self criticizing, self deprecating character and delicately defines the melancholy, lonely world he inhabits inside a fractured marriage. As his bitter, earnest and frustrated wife, Flanagan is excellent as an educated, extremely organized and at times very bossy character – no wonder Harry jokingly calls her ‘mummy’. But there is heartbreak hidden behind the facade of their seemingly loving marriage: soon we learn what happened to their daughter, Joanna, and why Adrian will no longer drive.
Ebullient, self satisfied, leering, almost Falstaffian Harry is marvellously played by Szeps. His second wife, the bold, brazen, voluptuous Judy is deliciously played by Regan. A lapsed Catholic – or is she? – Judy is both a divorcee and has had an abortion – both of which could cause crisis in their relationship.
We see them caught up in the tourist traps and sightseeing (e.g. St Mark’s Square in Venice, a gondola ride and the Coliseum); witness arguments about how they split the bills; Alison’s dislike of mobile phones; and more, as the couples’ relationships develop on their shared holiday.
The final couple to be mentioned are Sara Bovolenta and Adriano Cappelletta who play all the other characters (waiters, motel receptionists, security guards, car hire people etc). Highlights would have to be the centurion at the Coliseum, a gondolier, and the Count and Contessa who own the villa the four stay in for their final week – glorious fun.
Dale-Johnson’s multi layered, multi-level set design is fabulous, incorporating at times simple tables and chairs, but also including various projections – particularly handy for when we see the sights of Venice and Rome. There is a small portable ‘bridge’ for the Venetian sequence that also doubles as a gondola. And the dancing under the stars at the conclusion is indeed romantic.
At the end there is a bittersweet atmosphere of sadness, happiness, forgiveness and reconciliation. Six actors in a fine, contemporary social comedy that audiences will hugely enjoy.
Rating: Four stars
Four Flat Whites in Italy
By Roger Hall
Director: Sandra Bates
Designer: Marissa Dale-Johnson
Lighting Designer: Scott Allan
Dialect Consultant: Nick Curnow
Choreographer: Nikki Selby
Cast: Michael Ross, Sharon Flanagan, Henry Szeps, Mary Regan, Adriano Cappalletta and Sara Bovolenta
Running time: just under three hours (including interval)
Ensemble Theatre
September 8 – October 22
