Good things happen on stage in Sydney
A group of hot young actors have launched their new theatre company with the Australian premiere of a dark and sexy play about twenty-something men behaving badly.
The Things Good Men Do, by award-winning young British playwright Dan Muirden, premiered at Sydney’s Tap Gallery last week with an appropriately fresh, young cast and production team.
The play and the locally trained team behind it (new production company Come Again Jnr) offers a unique interpretation of relationships and the moral dilemmas that every person faces.
Nick is a reformed womaniser who is fast approaching thirty and has fallen head-over-heels for the girl he wants to marry and have kids with. But then a dark little fling he’d rather forget comes back to threaten everything. For the first time he understands that a picture-perfect, middle-class life might not be a given. How far will he go to keep himself in the game that everyone else seems to be playing?
The play features an all star cast of bright, talented and resourceful young actors that includes Chad Richards as Nick, Anna James as Lucy, Chris Leaney as Joe, Jeremy Just as Rich and The Counselor and Stephanie Pick as Adriana.
Dan Muirden’s debut full length play is a dark comedy set in present day, twenty something, professional London. He is the writer of Invisible Storms and his one-act piece Lovely Couple was short listed for the Westminster Prize at Soho Theatre and he currently writes for BBC Television and Radio.
According to AussieTheatre.com’s Benita De Wit, the play is an admirable start for the new Sydney company.
“Director Nicole Selby used the space well to provide good viewing angles for the audience, and creatively used the minimal set pieces (two flat bed/couches). It would have been nice to see the cast more comfortable and natural with the dialogue, as well as some more indecision from the characters, rather than simple one dimensional objectives,” she said.
“The new production company that created The Things Good Men Do, ‘Come Again Jnr’, is the brainchild of three of the actors; Richards, Just and James. Having studied acting together they embarked on the project in order to create work for themselves. They must be commended on a great choice of play and an admirable start for a new company.”
The Things Good Men Do plays at the TAP Gallery in Darlinghurst Until May 8 and is directed by Nicole Selby (Assistant Director, Ensemble Theatre) with design by Elliot Glass.
Bookings: 1300 438 849.