Patrick Marber’s searing psychological dramedy Closer is La Boite’s first offering for 2024. Directed by CEO and Artistic Director Courtney Stewart, the play packs a hefty punch.
Larry and Alice both work in the skin trade: Larry is a dermatologist and Alice is a stripper. Larry is a ‘clinical observer of the human carnival’ and likes to hang out in strip clubs. Alice just wants to be loved. Dan and Anna both steal (ahem, ‘borrow’) people’s lives for a living: Dan is a writer and Anna is a photographer. Dan is addicted to the truth and Anna thinks men only love women for the way they make them feel. What follows is a complicated glimpse into the intersecting private lives of these four characters spanning across four years.
Closer premiered in 1997 at the Royal National Theatre in London with Clive Owen originating the role of Dan. It won the Evening Standard Award for Best Comedy and the Olivier Award for Best New Play. After premiering on Broadway in 1999, it became a film in 2004; with Owen nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar, this time for the role of Larry.
Set design by M’ck McKeague evoked a sort of modern Alice in Wonderland style chessboard featuring luscious candy pink glass squares peppering a white stage floor. The pink glass squares were the basis for all the set pieces, which saw Swedish furniture design meeting Tetris, or perhaps Minecraft for the younger generation, to create an entire universe furnished with square blocks. The sets were deliberately kept minimal to balance the searing dialogue.
Closer is set in the era in which it was written aka the late ‘90s. The costuming, also by McKeague, included logo tees from Nirvana, Scream, and Ghostbusters, eliciting a nostalgic air. Both Sophie Emberson-Bain and Anna McGahan had pixie haircuts and looked like they’d just stepped out of the CK One commercial. The play is set in the UK, and McGahan’s character Anna also spoke with an Irish lilt reminiscent of the lead singer of The Cranberries.
The technology and the fashion may have changed since the turn of the 21st Century, but people’s behaviour has not. In 2024, the themes explored in Closer are still as relevant as ever. Patrick Marber’s script is razor sharp. Sit as close to the stage as you can get, as this play is performed in the Roundhouse Theatre, so there are moments where the actors have their backs to you, and every word is critical. The play is confronting and shocking. All great art is. There are lots of c-bombs – consider yourself warned. The opening night audience was gasping almost as much as they were laughing.
Sophia Emberson-Bain was riveting as Alice, the only character who wasn’t a cheater. She delivered, in my opinion, one of the most insightful lines in the play. In short: ‘There’s a moment, there’s always a moment; I can do this, I can give in to this or I can resist it. You didn’t fall in love; you gave in to temptation.’ Alice is an enigma: why doesn’t she look where she’s going when she steps into traffic? Did she cause the scar (aptly shaped like a question mark) on her thigh? Emberson-Bain’s work in the strip club scene was fearless and a dramatic highlight of the play. Fun fact: Marber wrote the entire play around this scene. Another fun fact: the 1885 memorial to Alice Ayres in London’s Postman’s Park really exists.
As Larry, Colin W Smith also delivered some of the most gut punching lines of the play. The one that really got me thinking was: ‘if you women could see one minute of our home movies – the shit that slops through our minds every day – you’d string us up by our balls, you really would. You don’t understand the territory. Because you are the territory.’ The chat room scene between Smith and Kevin Spink as Dan was a particularly funny highlight, while the climactic scene between Smith and McGahan was explosive. Who could ever forget Larry’s Act One closing line?
The intimacy work amongst the four actors was excellent and it was clear that the cast were in good hands with Nigel Poulton, who also acted as Fight and Movement Director.
Closer is a play that will probably promote lots of discussion after the show around the concept of truth, especially in intimate relationships. I thought a lot about what it means to have to live with a lie, and deal with it eating away at you, versus the damage that revealing the truth can cause.
The last time La Boite presented Closer was 24 years ago. If you miss this brilliant work, much like a comet in the sky, it might be a long time before you get to see it again.
Closer is playing at La Boite Theatre, Brisbane until 20th April.
Sarah Skubala
Other reviews you might enjoy:
- Fury (Red Stitch) – theatre review
- Right Now (Red Stitch) – theatre review
- Vietgone (Queensland Theatre) – theatre review
Sarah Skubala is a freelance writer and has lived in Highgate Hill for several years. Originally from Adelaide, Sarah has a background in library work and musical publicity. She co-executive produced the award winning short film Down To Earth and has written a comedy short screenplay. She is currently working on a web series and a novella. Sarah is a fixture in West End and can be found wherever there is good coffee and cheap books.