RU4ME

RU4ME
By Annie Byron. True West Theatre & Riverside. Riverside Theatres, Parramatta. August 22 – 31, 2013, and touring.

RU4ME is a quirky comedy about a middle-aged woman’s foray into internet dating. Inspired originally by her own and a friend’s experiences, and adapted from Andee Jones’ book Kissing Frogs, Annie Byron adds skillful playwrighting to her already established theatrical career. As well as Andee Jones, Byron pays credit to Wayne Harrison for his encouragement, support and dramaturgical advice during the writing and editing of the play.

Staged last year in Riverside Theatre’s first True West season, RU4ME, once again directed by Wayne Harrison, now begins a busy east coast tour. This is well deserved, because the play is well written, tight and economic, a perfect vehicle for Byron’s style and timing – and because it is topical, fun, enjoyable and has great audience appeal.

The set is effectively simple and utilitarian. There is a laptop on a white table, six different white chairs, one draped in a red throw, and a carry bag. Above hangs a screen with the title of the play. Here Byron, as Connie, establishes her home or a restaurant, the hairdresser’s, even a bed, as she recounts her sometimes hilarious, sometimes slightly scary and sometimes even a little wistful, experiences of internet dating.

Byron is an accomplished actor. Her timing and engaging appeal immediately endear Connie to the audience. She addresses them directly, asks rhetorical questions, even flirts a little, without ever losing the sense that this is a performance, carefully controlled, directed and rehearsed.

Projections accompanied by clever sound effects support Connie’s forays into the dating game. Contacts are announced with a ‘ping’; arrows shoot with a ‘zing’; kisses with a “smack’. Photos appear and she shares the accompanying comments that lead her to ‘delete’! As she re-enacts some of the real rather than virtual encounters, she takes a different scarf from the carry bag, moves to the appropriate chair and recounts bits of conversation with pithy asides.

It is in the asides that her timing and delivery are at their best. Lines such as “hundreds of men all looking for long walks along the beach” and “from the check out chick to the online shopper” are accompanied by a grin, a wink or toss of the head. It is easy for the audience to identify with her, share her ups and downs and, yes, LOL!

This play is fun. Check for tour dates during September and October.

Carol Wimmer

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