Where and When: Chapel
off Chapel, Aug 1to 12, 2012
Reviewer: Kate Herbert
Stars:***
Review in Herald Sun on Aug 8
Alan Ball’s award-winning
screenplays (American Beauty, Six Feet Under) explore the inner darkness and
paradoxes of characters, their vulnerabilities, conflicted natures, their
struggle to reach potential and accept themselves.
His stage play, All That
I Will Ever Be, delves into similar issues with its story of Omar (Francisco
Lopez) who sells phones by day and recreates himself at night, playing exotic
roles as a male prostitute.
Although he insists that
he is not gay – he has a girlfriend (Sarah Roberts) – when he meets new client,
Dwight (Christian Heath), he builds a relationship by increments with this
privileged 30-something who lives on Daddy’s money.
Heath captures the
insecurity and vulnerability in Dwight who has all material things, but lacks self-worth,
love and freedom from emotional pain and panic attacks.
Omar’s lies, betrayal and
lack of trust are the core of this story and, while Lopez is suitably brittle
as Omar, he lacks some of his chameleon quality.
This naturalistic play
focuses on the characters, as we witness the burgeoning relationship between
Omar and Dwight, Omar’s duplicitous, dysfunctional interactions with others,
and the eventual collapse of their relationship because of Omar’s dishonesty.
While Ball’s dialogue is
smart and the actors explore some of his black comedy, the pace is sometimes
slow, the rhythm unbalanced, and the final scene seems extraneous.
By Kate Herbert
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