Loves & Hours

Adelaide’s Galleon Theatre Group has a happy knack of successfully producing comedies that are outside mainstream amateur theatre fare. The company’s productions are often quirky, darkly funny or decidedly tongue-in-cheek. Helped by Erik Strauts’ excellent direction and a fine ensemble cast, Galleon’s Australian premiere of Stephen Metcalfe’s Loves & Hours is all of this and more.

Divorced empty nester Dan Tilney is completely at a loss as to finding another partner, but his friends insist he needs someone. There are complications though, all of which revolve around love, family, age, sex and sexuality. For Dan the path forward is less than certain as the relationships of friends, family and even his neighbours muddy the way.

Stephen Metcalfe’s storyline for this play teeters very close to the edge of ‘American sitcom’ at times, but he is careful to ensure it is more than this. He pokes gentle fun at how we define love and gives the story its own definite opinions, resulting in a comedy that tests society’s norms and has much more depth than a sitcom.

Andrew Horwood is excellent as Dan Tilney, imbuing the gentle man with a realistic willingness to laugh at his own middle-aged attempts to recapture his youth. This is a man in a so-called typical mid-life crisis, but in his portrayal of Dan’s relationship with a girl young enough to be his daughter Horwood skillfully ensures the character never becomes a stereotype.

Shelley Hampton is another standout as Dan’s lifelong friend, Julia Schwabb. Her performance subtly and poignantly portrays the repressed love Julia has for Dan, creating a stoic but at times humorous character.

John Koch is very funny as Julia’s ex and Dan’s friend, Harold Schwabb, who finally discovers he might not be quite up to the vigour of his very young new bride Andrea. Unfortunately, Koch’s American accent is a bit hit and miss.

Rosie Williams is perfect as Dan’s other love interest, the irrepressible and delightful young tax agent, Charlotte Walker. In a difficult role for a relatively inexperienced actor, there is no self-consciousness in Williams’ acting and plenty of natural talent; a terrific performance.

Bronwyn Ruciak demonstrates a wealth of acting experience in her role as Dan’s gay ex-wife. She has some hysterically funny moments as Linda, playing the character with a fine sense of comic timing. Ruciak also does a great job in a cameo as a different character, portraying Dan’s reluctant and short-lived first date when he begins his journey to find a new love.

Simon Lancione is fantastic as Dan’s son, Dan Tilney Jr and is matched by a very good performance by Sharon Pitardi as lonely neighbor and cougar, Sarah Houghton. In only his second stage acting experience Adam Dalby does a great job as Tom, Sarah’s unappreciative husband.

Megan Langford and Laura Antoniazzi complete the excellent ensemble work with solid performances as Rebecca Tilney and Andrea Schwabb respectively.

Galleon is renowned for its box sets but for Loves & Hours the company has necessarily and very successfully moved away from this. Julia Morris has designed a stylish, modern and minimalist black and white set which is sparsely dressed with tables and matching cubes. The cubes become chairs and other props, allowing the clever design to work effortlessly in creating the many environments of the multiple vignettes in the play.

Sound design by Sean Smith is excellent and as the ever-changing vignettes move to various parts of the stage the lighting and spotlights are handled well by Luke Budgen and Warren McKenzie.

Loves & Hours is an episodic play and it takes a while to engage the audience, but this is entirely due to the writing, with the complicated historical relationships of the characters being explained up-front.

As the story progresses we’re hooked, and we learn that this play has been well worth the scene-setting. It becomes yet another example of a well-chosen, finely performed and impressively staged Galleon gem.

Lesley Reed

Images (from top): Adam Dalby (Dan) and Sharon Pitardi (Sarah); Andrew Horwood (Dan) and Rosie Williams (Charlotte); Andrew Horwood (Dan) and Shelley Hampton (Julia) & Andrew Horwood (Dan) and John Koch (Harold).