Review: The Lover

By Jodi Yeats

The Lover is a short, sharp one-act play where every word, gesture and action counts and builds towards a riveting denouement and twist.

Sarah (Michelle Langstone) and Richard (Craig Hall) are a middle-class English couple whose marriage appears to be something of a sham. Sarah is a bored housewife who entertains a lover in the afternoons while Richard toils at some meaningless, accounting-type job involving bar graphs and sums.

True to the spirit of the free loving 1960s, Sarah is totally frank about her afternoon trysts and Richard aspires to rise above petty emotions of jealousy and respect and love Sarah as an independent woman.

Sarah is somewhat challenged by Richard’s revelation he has taken a “whore” but professes to be simply surprised he hasn’t chosen a lover who is more of an equal.

Hall also plays the part of the lover, which only adds to the intensity as the pair indulge in fantasy games, involving dominance, submission, and adulterous seduction.

Hall and Langstone both act incredibly well and, along with superb direction and production, they make the play sizzle.

Hall sports a fab retro suit with narrow legs and pointy shoes, and Langstone is dressed in classical black or a lacy dress over sexy underwear in the afternoons.

The set is austere, a bedroom and lounge in blocky shapes reminiscent of a hotel room and almost entirely made of cardboard, perhaps evoking the flimsy veneer of their marriage.

Loud blues and soul music, and funky orange and purple lighting add to the “retro 1960s with a contemporary edge” design.

The Lover is an excellent inaugural play from a new theatre company, Easy Company, launched by Bell-Booth and her friend producer Tara Riddell.

It is like a glass of spirits, of the type consumed frequently in the play and marking the end of another working day - short but with the kick of a mule.

The Lover
By Harold Pinter
Directed by Caroline Bell Booth
Basement Theatre
Until 13 February
Tickets $20
www.iticket.co.nz or ph (09) 361 1000