What Rhymes with Cars and Girls

Tucked under an old brown couch, the board game seems innocuous.

It’s never touched during the show but it is played, for two lovestruck misfits are building their own Mousetrap one piece at a time.

Triggers have been set. The cage will fall. Whether the pair can live within the confines of the expectations of others remains to be seen. Time and a very forgiving support band are the only things working in their favour.

What Rhymes with Cars and Girls is an all or nothing love story calibrated by playwright Aidan Fennessy to the tunes of Aussie musician Tim Rogers’ cult hit album of the same name.

On stage and playing for most of the show is Rogers (of You Am I fame) and his band and the stage is set up to look like an at-home recording studio in which the unfolding drama plays out like a projection of the band’s imagination. At the same time the opposite is true, with the couple’s story and emotional turmoil vibrating through the strings of violin, double base and guitar. The band is both a character and the consciousness of this musical, observing without judging and this helps the audience do the same, although I did want to reach out and shake some sense into our lovebirds a few times.

Essentially this is a two-handed musical romance with Johnny Carr and Sophie Ross sharing the spotlight at the Powerhouse Theatre for almost two hours, singing, sulking, swearing, fighting and challenging each other all the way.

Ross, who at times seems to channel Meryl Streep in Mamma Mia!, is rambunctious one minute and sensual the next. Her emotional intensity is matched by Carr’s charisma and the two share an intimacy on stage that sometimes makes you feel as though you are invading their privacy.

Director Clare Watson and Melbourne Theatre Company have brought What Rhymes with Cars and Girls to Brisbane for a limited season that ends on Saturday night.

If you’re looking for date night ideas, are a Tim Rogers fan, or love contemporary Aussie love stories, this is the show for you.

Debra Bela

Photographer: Jeff Busby