I Love You Now

Jeanette Cronin writes plays for two people in which she, a terrific, incendiary actor, portrays The Woman, stripped bare and revealed. This is often enough for certain Sydney audiences who couldn’t care less what her plays are actually about.

I Love You Now at the Eternity Playhouse follows I Hate You My Mother at the Old Fitz Theatre earlier in the year, both directed by Kim Hardwick. This one has Paul Gleeson as her male sparring partner. Two plays in six months is brilliant. If only I could grasp exactly what is happening in the latest offering.

To a beautifully presented hotel room (designed by Isabel Hudson and lit by Martin Kinnane) come June and Leo. Immediately they begin to ‘role play’ three or four different characters each. On and off go the glasses, her dress and her knickers. His German accent for one character is perfect; her loud-mouthed lover is demanding. The double bed is the centre of their universe.

Director Hardwick says in a programme note that “each relationship becomes a reflection of a reflection of a reflection”. That’s as maybe. Cronin gives her absolute all as June, loudly falling over herself stripped to the bone, or quietly announcing her demise. Paul Gleeson is equally adept.

Included in the production are two musician/composers, Max Lambert on keyboard and Roger Lock on guitar, who play obtrusively through the back wall of the set. This is a most pleasant way of presenting the music. The set comes under fire of a fall of rose petals at the end. Max and Roger play on regardless.

Frank Hatherley

Photographer: Robert Catto