NZ author Roger Hall’s 1999 work The Book Club was adapted as a one-woman show by Rodney Fisher. An earlier version earned Amanda Muggleton a Helpmann Award nomination. This version is an update, replete with references to, for example, Fifty Shades of Grey and The Slap. Muggleton gives it her all, complete with ladder-climbing, acrobatics on a couch and raunchy sex scenes – and that without a partner. Ever tried acting out both parties to a hot sex session?
Muggleton does all this and more, and has us in stitches as she does so. What’s more, she keeps it up for nearly two and half hours! When interval came, I thought the show must be over. After all, it had reached a possible ending place. Muggleton had already been on stage for an hour and half, non-stop, and that with an injured foot. But no, better-informed patrons were obviously enjoying their interval drinks, so my companion and I did likewise, and sure enough, the bell rang after 20 minutes to call us back to Deborah’s library.
Deborah is a 50-ish empty-nester with a sports-mad lawyer husband. She regrets not having had a career of her own, but she has lots of interests, the main one being her book club. Muggleton acts the parts of all the club members (her Welsh and Greek accents are enviable, and so is her Vauclusian) as well as those of her husband and her lover. Just fancy, a book-a-holic with a real live writer for a lover!
After interval, a vein of seriousness creeps in as we watch Deborah become more and more dependent on her secret assignations to provide her with excitement and maybe even a reason for living. The energy does drop a little in the half-hour after interval, but nevertheless, the comedic aspect is still there and gradually the serious and funny sides of the situation converge as the play comes to a rollicking conclusion.
Sore foot or no, there is no stopping Amanda Muggleton. From time to time she drags out a sizable, very sturdy, step ladder so she can file and retrieve books from the hefty collection that lines one wall in competition with a treadmill. The ladder and the treadmill are visual metaphors for Deborah’s states of mind. Sometimes she’s rushed off her feet, sometimes she’s as high as a kite, to a point at which I feared for her safety as she demonstrated a ‘Look Mum, no hands’ insouciance atop the ladder. And always she is very, very funny.
If you love books and love comedy, this is a show for you!
Rating: 4 ½ stars
The Book Club
Performed by Amanda Muggleton
Subiaco Arts Centre, Perth
4–8 June
