Daylight Saving

Nick Enright’s play, set on Sydney’s Northern Beaches in the 1980s, is a play of its time, and, despite some funny lines and kooky characters, that’s where it stays! However it does lends itself to farce – because of constant arrivals and departures, many phone calls and some failed attempts at subterfuge – but if it’s played straight it doesn’t quite make it as either a farce or a period piece.

However, Bernard Teuben’s production takes place on an impressive set that sets the scene and the atmosphere evocatively.

Felicity (Shelley Casey) runs a busy restaurant. Her husband, Tom (Richard Ifield), the manager of a narcissistic young tennis star (Tim Robertson) is often away from home.  Consequently their marriage is a little strained, especially as Tom is away for their seventh wedding anniversary that coincides with the end of daylight saving.

Out of the blue Felicity has a call from Josh (Luke Hawkins), the boyfriend she met as an exchange student in America 20 years before. Because he’s in Sydney, she invites him for dinner. His attempts at a more amorous reunion are thwarted by constant interruptions by Felicity’s mother, Bunty (Julia Griffith), the batty nextdoor neighbour Stephanie (Anthea Brown) and numerous phone calls from the volatile gay couple that run the restaurant. Then Tom, and Jason, arrive unexpectedly.

Elements of farce abound and the cut and thrust of a tennis match is implied in many of the exchanges.

The second act meets some of the challenges that these complications deserve, but there needs to be more pace, more thrust and parry in order for the play to reach its denouement a little more convincingly. The first act, too, needs faster, biting responses to make Felicity and Tom’s relationship more believable. It’s there in the dialogue, but not quite there in the delivery.

Jewel Johnson suggests the thrust and parry in her set. The supposed tranquility of The Pittwater Basin Versus the stresses of the couple’s professional life is symbolised in an open plan entertainment area set on a floor marked as a tennis court. A printed image of The Basin, lit from behind (lighting Sean Churchward) lends verisimilitude and the costumes (Annette Snars) typify the style and colour of the 80s.

Audiences will enjoy Anthea Brown’s chatty, flouncy self-absorbed depiction of Stephanie, Julia Griffith’s interfering North Shore caricature of Bunty and the typical spoiled, egotistical boy-man that Tim Robertson makes of Jason.

The contrast in opponents between Ifield’s stiff, pompous Tom and Hawkins’ artsy, romantic Josh makes for some interesting long shots, and Shelley Casey, who is on stage for much of the play, returns some difficult serves in a match that takes her to a couple of love games!

Carol Wimmer

Photographer: Chris Lundie