Cara Carissima. By Geoff Page. Directed by Tanya Gruber. The Acting Company in association with Shadow House Pits. The Courtyard Studio, Canberra Theatre Centre. Until December 20.
Bookings 62752700 or canberratheatrecentre.com.au/show/cara-carissima/
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The ruggedly flexible Courtyard Studio does theatre in the round for the premiere of Geoff Page's verse comedy of Canberra manners. It's not a long play at just over an hour but that's long enough to introduce a set of recognisably Canberra characters and some depressingly recognisable marital difficulties.
The setting is a coffee bar somewhere in Civic and the narrator is the cheerfully wise Bruno (Bruno Galdino), the all-seeing barista. A trendy rough wooden bar and white metal stools sit diagonally in the middle of the playing space and the same two cups economically serve for everyone's latte.
Barry (Peter Robinson) is a rather depressed senior public servant whose marriage to Sarah (Nikki-Lyn Hunter) is clearly wobbling. His executive assistant, Cara (Cara Irvine), has just lost her husband to a younger woman. Sarah's younger sister, Jane (Kate Blackhurst), has a marriage that seems to be working. She gives Sarah advice Sarah does not always take and expresses views that Sarah does not always agree with, but the sibling bond remains.
When Barry falls into a relationship with Cara and a messy divorce ensues, Jane is around to help retrieve the pieces while Cara and Barry plan to junket around Europe. Cara is part of a large Italian-Australian family and is not interested in having kids while Sarah is appalled that her two expensively educated sons have dropped out of prestigious uni courses in pursuit of their real interests, and that Barry seems unperturbed by this. There is much discussion of the financial terms of the divorce and Sarah is incensed that she will probably not be generously supported in her old age by a doctor and a lawyer.
There's no real resolution to any of this but some gentle fun is had along the way with middle-class expectations of life and Page's lines are, as always, a great pleasure to listen to. That is why Galdino's cheerfully wise barista needs to slow down a little – we want to hear those words. We also find ourselves listening to see how cleverly the rhymes will resolve themselves.
Robinson's Barry may not keep up in the end with the younger Cara but both he and Irvine make the relationship very believable. Blackhurst as Jane has warmth and some wisdom. And as Sarah, Hunter has enough acid to make it clear she will survive, perhaps long enough to see Barry and Cara's coupling hit the wall.
The staging does become a little crowded in the centre and the Courtyard Studio is notorious for difficult sight lines but there's a sense of style and purpose in the design elements which are kept sensibly simple. Tanya Gruber's direction concentrates on keeping the tone light and the language of the relationships quietly ironic. This is a show that suits an end-of-year mood of reflection on follies and of things winding down.
