Wrecked Eggs by David Hare, June 3, 2000

Aquarius Productions

at Chapel off Chapel until June 25, 2000

Reviewer: Kate Herbert

It is always a pleasant surprise to stumble upon a good show when one is not expecting it. Wrecked Eggs is one of those in spite of its rather self-conscious title.

This production of English playwright David Hare's 75-minute play, is directed by David Myles at Chapel off Chapel. Hare's writing is always intelligent and witty. His dialogue is life a fencing match with rapiers poised but no blood drawn.

Conversations are tinged with unrealised menace and he leaves us anticipating disaster. He suggests that even the most innocuous and ordinary lives are riddled with unpredictability.

His plot tilts and writhes like some slippery creature. We never know where it might turn.

Robbie (Jeremy Stanford) and Loelia (Frédériqué Fouché) are a couple on the brink of separation, which in itself is a surprise to their single guest, Grace, ( Bernadette Schwerdt) to whom they seem the perfect couple.

Robbie and Loelia  have loosely invited guests for a weekend rite of passage  celebration of their impending divorce. Only Grace, a relative stranger, arrives.

Schwerdt must be one of Melbourne theatre's best-kept secrets. She is a charming dramatic and comic actor with a quirky look, intelligent interpretation and detailed emotional performance.

Stanford, known for his wonderful work in musical theatre finds a fine edgy charm as Robbie and captures his deception, jealousy, insecurity and conservatism.

Fouché  plays the naivete of his French wife and has a peppy style but, as yet, she has not found the depth or truth in the role.

The open, split-level staging and rather noisy flooring do not enhance the show. Myles could have contained the piece in a more intimate, confined stage space to explore the intense an claustrophobic atmosphere. The actors are forced to pace about the large space to fill it. However, this is a very satisfying night at the theatre.

By Kate Herbert