Those Who Fall in Love Like Anchors Dropped Upon the Ocean Floor

Visiting from Perth at Sydney’s Griffin Theatre, this talented trio offers a collection of fast stories about falling in love. Finegan Kruckemeyer has an established reputation as a children’s writer; and this (adult) play sports all the whimsy and imaginative fun you might expect from that. 

We leap through quick sketches of developing infatuations: between snowbound shooters in the Appalachians, two Soviet female submariners stranded below, a Parisian watch-repairer infatuated with a cyclist on the street, or an excruciatingly funny first date in an Australian Chinese restaurant.

Central to these quick changes is India Mehta’s mobile cut-through of a café booth.  As the actors swing it into different purposes, it too conjures heaps of Playschool fun.  Ben Collins’ soundscape also helps quickly establish new settings, as we segue between these developing scenarios, even to the cliché of the Parisian accordion.

Jo Morris, Renee Newman and Ben Mortley match this with a kaleidoscope of competent accents and characters, and director Adam Mitchell keeps it moving.  

The supposedly link between stories is the experience of coincidence and shifting time, but it’s a slim one.  We laugh, we’re occasionally moved (by the pain of love not reciprocated), but after 75 minutes it’s finally just a series of sketches.  Artfully presented, yes, but more the stuff of cartoons than any tapestry of heartfelt truths.

Martin Portus