The Life of Us

The Life of Us
Music and Lyrics by Ben Bennett. Book by Ashleigh Taylor and Ben Bennett. 100 Coffees Productions and Neil Gooding Productions. Hayes Theatre. Directed by Neil Gooding. Jan 16 – Feb 2020.

At its first tryout Oklahoma! was called Away We Go! and the first thought which crossed my mind about this musical was whether it too might benefit from a better name.  This new Australian musical is about the perils of managing long distance relationships, which the title doesn’t communicate.

The first twenty minutes of the musical are spine tinglingly good. The co-writers Ashleigh Taylor and Ben Bennett play the leads. Ellie is home looking after her mother with early onset of dementia, whilst Charlie is in London developing a career as a rock singer.

The set from Lauren Peters is cleverly divided into four – two bedrooms, kitchen and loungeroom.  The long distance lovers chat on Skype – sitting next to each other at times but always communicating into their computer screens. The choreography of these exchanges was sweet. 

Co-writers Ashleigh and Ben are a couple in real life, and their relationship was tested by absence in its early stages, so there was no holding back on their sizzling chemistry. As the days of their separation ticked over you could feel the ache of their love sickness.  The funniest moment is when they attempt a more intimate cyber exchange.

The couple are anchored on either side of the world and equally stubborn. Ellie won’t leave her mother Grace (Pippa Grandison), whilst Charlie’s manager and best friend  Mike (Christian Charisiou) keeps delivering more and more exciting career opportunities to the pop singer, to keep him in the UK.

Ben Bennett has composed some delicious pop tunes – with his character nabbing the best of them. The show would benefit if a couple of the strongest songs were reprised, to help keep them spinning around the ears of patrons.

The character of Grace is based in part on a relative of Ashleigh who suffered from dementia. It was portrayed sympathetically by Pippa Grandison. She was given one spectacular song – which was dramatically powerful but felt a fraction too lucid for someone who was unwell (although I was advised that people in her condition can have really good days).  A small tweak will make this song and other aspects of the musical more satisfying.

The Life of Us is a work in progress which will benefit from having such a high quality first outing and deserves another run after further development.

As it stands, it is a highly entertaining piece of theatre which gets under your skin. Debate bubbled over in the foyer about the characters and the decisions they took.

David Spicer

Photographer: Grant Leslie

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