Sexual Misconduct of the Middle Classes, Melbourne Theatre Company, Belvoir Theatre, 2 June-10 July 2022

 

An academic and author becomes fascinated with one of his students, finding his life more and more entwined with hers until eventually they end up sexually involved. The after-effects on both of them have ramifications far beyond the immediate, hanging over both of them. He's narrating the story, telling it directly to the audience in the third person,but are we getting the whole story?

Hannah Moscovitch's 2020 two-hander is a fast moving play that dances at the edge of a precipice - this is the kind of story we've seen many times before, and often from the male perspective - but rarely this smartly and this intriguingly. Petra Kelive's production brings this Canadian play into Australian accents and with one or two Australian references, but otherwise keeps it pretty much intact - it's the kind of thing you could expect to see on any campus any time in the last decade or so. Dan Spielman plays the academic with a certain amount of self-justifying transperent charm - he's never quite getting away with as much as he thinks he is and there's an edge between who he thinks he is and what his actions are betraying. Izabella Yena has the role that seems thinner early on - most of the early scenes largely have her being observed by the academic and lightly interacting with him, before things get deeper and denser. It's a provocative evening, and the conversations after the play may be as enlightening as what goes on during - but it's also a story that knows its tropes and is able to effectively subvert them.

This is a clever, compelling 80 minute show that feels tight and laser focussed, and is gripping throughout. It walks a tightrope of comteporary concerns masterfully before hitting you with a final twist that brings the show into perspective. Very pleased this made the transfer.