Back in theatres for 2022, the first of the "Q The Locals" mini-season sees rising performers Christopher Samuel Carroll and Damon Baudin in a two-hander about marketing, society, personal ethics, psychology and the ways that capitalism may very well have doomed us all - ambitious perhaps, but also insightful, intelligent and incredibly pertinent. It's a simple production - two actors in suits, a long table with an ashtray and a drinks cabinet, talking for about 105 minutes, Carroll chain-smoking herbal cigarettes for most of the night. )
Carroll has triple-tasked himself with playing one of the leads, directing and writing (noting that was not the original intention - he's taken on the role after Covid upended some of the rehearsal process) - I'd hope in further productions he brings in a separate eye, because at present the play is a little over-written with long arias, particularly from Glenn, the character he plays, about the subtle arts of convincing people to do things that aren't necessarily in their best interest. He's clearly done his research (the program credits George Monbiot, Naomi Klein and Adam Curtis as key influences) but a little more shaping may have made this a slightly tighter evening - there's a little bit of a sense that some of the points are being belaboured as the play currently stands - the writing is smart and witty and absolutely makes an impact, but tightening the points would pay off wonderfully. It's also no discredit to Carroll as an actor, who plays the more sympathetico of the pair, as the character who has to face up to his own moral compromoses. Initially brash and bold, we see his emotinoal deconstruction as he realises the trap he and the world he's in and how unlikely it is that he'll be able to work his way out again. Again, possibly as a result of the Covid recasting, there's a slight sense that the writing hasn't been adjusted to account for him being roughly the same age as Baudin- they're clearly meant to be of two different generations, and just as clearly they aren't, though Carroll does good work to try to sell the older character's gravitas.
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Damon Baudin plays the more shifty, intelligent, precise, professional character in all his lizardly-fascination - a creature of pure intellect who presents some uncomfortable truths as we drive home in our oil-powered vehicles. He's got the longer arias on psychological manipulation and the techniques which sell fear and doubt to the general public and gives them an insinuating charm that makes it just that bit more shocking as you realise what he's really trying to sell you.
Anthony Hately lights the show as a sharp arena for the two men to prowl and prey on each other - with Carroll's herbal cigarette smoke forming a haze above them all that is as much symbolic as it is visually interesting.
In short, this is a sharp, effective night in the theatre featuring two strong performers that is absolutely worth catching, which I hope has a long life and can build to be the short sharp shock to the jugular that this absolutely deserves to be.
(Note, an earlier version assigned the actors around the wrong way - to be mildly fair to the morning self who wrote the review, the program photos of the two actors have Baudin with a proto-beard and Carroll without, while in the show Carroll has a full beard and Baudin doesn't - this has now been amended)
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