• theatre
  • features
  • faqs
  • contact
  • theatre
  • features
  • faqs
  • contact
  Art Murmurs - Wellington Reviews

Reviews

Stand Up Love

3/12/2016

Comments

 

Lizzie Murray

Director, Adam Goodall, and Making Friends Collective revives Gavin McGibbon’s 2007 play Stand Up Love for one half of the double barrelled production at BATS. The dark comedy features Freddy and Ana: A toxic couple, struggling to find their future together while uncovering each other’s past grievances.
Picture
Rachel Baker and Jonny Potts both offer genuinely hilarious and heart-breaking performances for their characters. Freddy is the cynical class clown you forgot about, who drinks too much and is (hardly) trying to make it as a stand up comedian. Ana is in advertising, tired of Freddy’s drunken antics and is keeping a secret.


The opening scene turns our audience into a crowd at a Fringe stand up show. Freddy’s opening act is dark and sometimes disturbing but is rewarded with roaring laughter. From celebrity baby names to punching babies, Freddy introduces a theme of rage and hints at his own troubled childhood and anger issues.


Tony Black’s charming lighting design seamlessly transforms the audience from a Fringe crowd to the walls of Freddy’s apartment. The transitions to and from the stage are slick and create an episodic structure. With the spotlight out, the all-too-familiar messy apartment is revealed when Freddy drunkenly arrives home. Ana has impatiently waited up for him. Here we are subject to the couple’s sweet nothings and intimate arguments.


Ana wants to pillow talk. For this couple, pillow talk is a paradise and a war zone (thanks, Zayn Malik). After reminiscing about their day, Ana asks Freddy to share vulnerabilities. He initially puts up a wall. Alcohol remains a strain on their relationship and Ana’s secret raises the stakes.


Ana satisfyingly takes over Freddy’s spotlight to offer her perspective. Freddy appears at the opposite end of the stage weaving his monologue with hers. The traverse staging engages the audience in an emotional match of Ping-Pong, heightening the tension between the lovers making you question whose side you are on.

The play reveals its age at times: From the Seinfeldesque jokes about the differences between men and women, to the popular culture references and even to Freddy’s ironically cuffed jeans. Despite the dated script, the jokes can still be made about celebrity baby names except today we can swap Apple for North.


Some things never change. Which leads me to the questions Stand Up Love poses. McGibbon asks not only can people change for relationships, but should they? To what extent can people change? This production reminded me of the need for comedy when rage takes over. Humor is a powerful communication and reflection tool. I wonder whether Freddy needs stand up more than just to pay rent.


If Stand Up Love sounds like your cup of tea I recommend also seeing the other half of Making Friends Collective’s double barrelled production Wine Lips. Written by Sam Brooks and directed Stella Reid, Wine Lips also focuses on toxic relationships, suffering artists and making you laugh.



Comments

    Local Honest Reviews

    At Art Murmurs, our aim is to provide honest and constructive art reviews to the Wellington community.

    Archives

    March 2023
    February 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    September 2021
    July 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    June 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015

    Categories

    All
    All Age Appropriate
    Art
    BATS
    Beauty Standards
    Black Comedy
    Body Positive
    Circa
    Circus
    Comedy
    Comedy Festival 2018
    Comedy Festival 2019
    Comedy Gala 2022
    Community Theatre
    Dance
    Devised
    Documentary
    Drag
    Drama
    Emerging Artist
    Exhibition
    Experimental
    Female Artists
    Feminism
    Feminist
    Festival
    For Kids
    Fringe
    Fun
    Gallery
    Gryphon Theatre
    Hannah Playhouse
    Heart + Music
    History
    Improv
    Interactive
    International
    Interview
    Ivy
    Lighting
    Local
    Mental Health
    Monologue
    Music
    Musical
    New Writing
    New Zealand
    NZ Comedy
    NZ Fringe
    NZIF
    On Tour
    Performance Poetry
    Photography
    Photospace Gallery
    Physical Theatre
    Political
    Politics
    Premiere
    Pyramid Club
    Queer
    Race
    Roxy LIVE
    Science
    Scruffy Bunny Improv Theatre
    Sexual Violence
    Shakespeare
    Site Specific
    Site-specific
    Sketch
    Solo Show
    Song
    Spoken Word
    Stagecraft
    Storytelling
    Tahi Festival
    Te Auaha
    Theatre
    Thought Provoking
    Thought-provoking
    Thriller
    Toi Poneke Gallery
    Verbatim
    Victoria University
    Violence
    Virtual Theatre
    Weekly
    Wellington
    Wellington Footlights
    Wellington Repertory