THEATRE
By Louis Dickins
At La
Mama Courthouse until July 24, 2022
Reviewer: Kate Herbert
Stars: ***
This review was first published in The Age Arts online on Friday July 22, 2022 but not in print. Click this link and scroll to the third review. Cheer Up Carl
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| Cheer_Up_Carl_ Simon Chandler, Maddie Roberts, Gabriel Egan-Pic Darren_Gill |
Think of the most self-absorbed, free-loading, angry, miserable git you have ever known, and you have an image of Carl (Gabriel Egan), the central character in Louis Dickins’ short, comic play Cheer up Carl.
Carl is a relentless visitor to the home of his obliging, considerate brother Peter (Simon Chandler) and Peter’s less tolerant wife Sonia (Maddie Roberts) who he regales with tales of woe about his dog Grover’s death, his drug-trafficking girlfriend’s deportation and his summary dismissal from his role on Neighbours after he attacked the director. Carl now writes bleak, self-indulgent poetry that is totally ignored by everyone except his admiring brother Peter.
Dickins paints his three characters with broad brushstrokes; Carl is the most fully developed, while computer repairman Peter and nurse Sonia are vehicles through which we learn about Carl’s idiosyncrasies.
Greg Carroll’s direction provides another dimension to Dickins’ unembellished, sometimes wordy script by adding exaggerated gesture, physicality and heightened emotion during angry confrontations or intimate moments between characters as they sit crammed uncomfortably on a black vinyl couch. They inhabit an absurd world in which they seem to run on parallel tracks, gazing into the distance, avoiding eye contact, expressing frustration with the world and each other, and discussing the minutiae of their existence – well, mostly Carl’s existence.
Dickins’ play includes wry, darkly comical dialogue: Sonia describes Carl’s visits as “like having a serial killer for dinner”, while Peter sadly recalls Carl being the life of the party until he stopped boozing and “sobriety ruined him”.
Egan makes the deplorable, provocative Carl almost lovable, playing him like a giant but angry golden retriever that cannot read emotions and does not understand the adult human world. He blithely expects Peter and Sonia to accommodate his every whim, tolerate his raging and sobbing and listen attentively to his execrable poetry.
Chandler brings a naive quality to Peter, playing him with wide-eyed sincerity and childlikeness as he praises his brother’s achievements and cheerfully excuses his myriad flaws. Roberts’ mercurial Sonia is often more unpredictable than Carl as she intermittently switches gears from reasonableness to frustration, or from teeth-gritting anger to grovelling apology.
Dickins’ script has some quirky twists, the most comical of which is Carl’s new love interest, Helga the deaf music teacher who sports an eye patch. However, the play’s narrative requires a stronger dramatic structure with less repetition and, although the short videos could potentially provide visual comedy and add layers to characters, the projections are not always clearly visible or fully integrated into the production.
It is satisfying to see Carl eventually cheer up and, despite its shortcomings, Cheer Up Carl is an enjoyable and humorous theatrical diversion.
by Kate Herbert
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