The Young Idea

“The Young Idea” is a play written by British playwright Noel Coward in 1921. The play circles around the diplomats and intrigues of two young siblings in meddling with their family affairs. It was funny, sometimes intelligent and full of subtle British humour. That’s what I usually like about British comedies. The actions are in the words themselves, there is no need to add anything extra and you could already be presented with a great show.

The Genesian Theatre Company is currently staging this play at their Kent Street premise in the city. Act 1 of the play set stage in a British country mansion while in Act 2 we were transferred over to Italy. Owen Gimblet has put sufficient work into the change of set to make the two different mansions in question quite distinctive, which was great. Nonetheless, the play is about its character, so that’s where it counts.

The play opens with Cecily, the wife of the wealthy gentleman George, and Roddy, Cecily’s illicit lover. It was a very weak opening. There was no chemistry between the two characters and a lot of times it feels like they were just reciting lines. Roddy, played by Carlin Hurdis, was particularly flat in this weak opening scene as if the accent has swallowed the character and there was nothing left apart from mechanical movements and regurgitation of speech. Cecily, played by Dearbhla Hannigan, has a weak voice that goes inwards a lot of time and that makes you really wonder whether these two characters are in love despite all the kissing you saw on the stage. The entrance of George (Matt Jones) into the scene did not help either. Matt did a great job as George but the lack of sparks between his character and Cecily did not give you a sense of tension in their relationship. We know the relationship was dying but not because the characters told us so but because the scene was spiralling into that direction. As with all productions, a strong opening is required to keep the audience engaged and the first few scenes of this production just failed to do so.

The play finally started to pick up when “the young ones” showed up. Lachlan Edmonds –Munro and Anita Donavan basically rescued the play from a crash landing in Act 1. The scheming siblings Sholto and Gerda were animated and energetic. They infused quite a lot of life back into this production. They basically lit up the stage again whenever they came on. I have seen Lachlan as Pip in another production of Great Expectation and thought that he was not a right candidate for that role. But in “The Young idea” he exhibited great comic skills and timing without overdosing the audience. David Ross as Claud brought quite a few comic moments with his subtle comedic timing, which was great, but his scenes were mostly with a bunch of characters that you do not grow to care about. In fact, despite having lots of characters doing their stuff on stage in Act 1, most of them were very forgettable. There was quite an uneven level of craft displayed and you could really spot the differences when you compare the scenes among Sholto, Gerda and George with all the other scenes. It was a pity because the play was such a great ensemble piece.

In Act 2 the long discussed Jennifer finally appeared and opened Act 2. Kerry Day did a decent job with the character but there were times that there were too much over acting on display. We know that Jennifer is a larger than life character and more “free spirited” but they were already in the lines. The script itself gave the character life in this aspect and any additional waving of hands in the airs and making of faces would just spoil it. The play mentioned several times about subtle British humour but it seems some of the cast members did not get the hint at all. Rebecca Latham was forgettable as Sybil in Act 1 (seriously I don’t even know why that character was necessary as it did not even move the plot forward) but shines as Maria in Act 2. Basically Maria is a lovable character and Rebecca got the character profile quite right in Act 2.

Personally, I think casting was the major shortcoming of this production. British comedies have good track records of having everything written on the page, especially earlier works. While modernising it with current “acting techniques” may help to breathe something new into them, a strong understanding of the text itself is required before doing so. For me, this production did not manage to do that. Nonetheless the performances of Lachlan, Anita and Matt were joyful to watch and that makes getting through Act 2 so much easier.