Closer takes no prisoners
All's fair, and love is war, at Theatre Junction
PREVIEW
CLOSER
Theatre Junction
Runs until February 9
Jubilee Auditorium
Dan and Anna are in love, but he lives with Alice and she lives with Larry. Should they or shouldn’t they? And if they do, what happens to Alice and Larry? And if it doesn’t work out, what becomes of Dan and Anna?
While the plot of Patrick Marber’s Closer would provide the basis for a rollicking good French farce, this intensely contemporary portrait of relationships is an emotional roller-coaster. In this play, which took New York and London by storm, love, dating and marriage are not cute, sentimental or light-hearted. This is take-no-prisoners streetfighting, breathless action that drags four souls across barbed wire in their struggle to follow their hearts. For the audience it is a harrowing journey filled with unexpected twists and turns over ground that is all too familiar – you cannot help but connect with these characters. Filled with humour, torturous situations and plenty of graphic language, the battleground of love and romance is candidly and honestly held up for our appraisal.
Director Mark Lawes has carefully crafted Theatre Junction's production of Closer to carry us along through every heart-pounding moment of passion and every cruel reversal. A deceptively simple production, thanks to Terry Gunvordahl’s design, the focus is entirely on the four actors. As usual, Lawes’s cast is up to the challenge.
At the heart of the maelstrom is Jarvis Hall as Dan. A failed novelist who writes obituaries for a living, Dan sets the wheels in motion. Hall is uncomfortably honest as the passionate lover, the broken heart and the selfish obsessive. Meg Roe, in her first year with Theatre Junction, delivers a performance of depth and heart-breaking maturity as the street-wise Alice. Shawna Burnett’s Anna is a very sympathetic portrait of a successful photographer who's pushed into situations with dire consequences. Completing the cast is Denis Fitzgerald as Larry the doctor. While all of these characters have a range of emotional situations forced on them, Larry’s reactions are positively operatic in Fitzgerald's performance, as he stumbles through the excitement of first love, the embarrassment and anger of betrayal, and the bitter depths of self-pity.
Few plays drag us through such candid emotional turmoil – Theatre Junction’s production of Closer is a harrowing rendering of Patrick Marber’s script. This is definitely not a play for those looking for sentimental escapism, but as an honest, contemporary vision of love and life, it should initiate some tremendous post-show conversation. |
