Julie Rodgers (Elyse Batson) is having a very bad day. The 28-year-old has just been sacked from her secretarial job for rejecting her married boss’ overtures. It was her eighth job in 10 years and she is worried she won’t be able to pay the rent. She pays out by drinking (a lot) and playing loud music in her small apartment, sans underwear. She receives a call from her elderly neighbour, imploring her to turn down the volume. She screams, swears and flashes him.
Then in walks her roommate of eight months, Alice Meyerlink (Jessica May), her “big hair” tousled, looking grim. She is having conniptions because her married boyfriend, Jerry, has “thrown her under a bus” by returning to his wife. She is looking for sympathy from Julie, but she is in no mood to provide it. Instead, Julie tries to rationalise why Jerry was the wrong choice in the first instance. Alice isn’t having a bar of it.
Alice, who was a big Jewish girl, has lost heaps of weight lately, but now she is craving food, even though she only recently ate dinner – twice. She seeks comfort in carbs, but there is none in the home. Julie encourages Alice, who is decidedly ditsy and overly nice, to start throwing cans and bottles around their flat, even though Alice isn’t inclined to do so.
When that goes skewwhiff, Julie hatches a screwy plan for the women to get their own back at men by inviting one over and having their way with him. As it so happens, soon thereafter the pizza delivery man, 29-year-old married father Eddie (Taylor Barrett) knocks on their door. What could possibly go wrong? Plenty!
Set on a Friday night in Los Angeles in the early ‘80s, Darlene Craviotto’s darkly comedic Pizza Man was first performed in 1982. Of course, that is long before the #MeToo movement gained traction. Underpinning it though is the exploitation and frustration felt by women at the hands of men. The unmistakable point is made about the frequency that men rape women. So, you can’t and shouldn’t overlook the sobering statistics, while watching the hilarity and hijinks explode on stage.
Everything about Pizza Man is over the top … exaggerated (exaggeration to sheet home the ugly truth is how I would put it). There are laughs aplenty as Elyse Batson and Jessica May go toe to toe as Julie and Alice. Neither holds back. They’re darn good at putting on a show. Batson is loud and aggressive. May can’t sit still. She writhes around in a series of deliberately awkward movements. Julie can’t believe how naïve and “thick” Alice is. Alice finds it difficult to reconcile the new side of Julie she is seeing.
And then there is the smirk on Taylor Barrett’s face (like the cat that is about to polish off the cream) as he enters the frame as the pizza delivery man late in Act I. Barrett’s “too cool for school” persona works a treat, as Eddie has no idea just what kind of mayhem he’s walked into. The loud shirt and tight shorts he wears, complete with his “porno” moustache, paint him as “a player”, who’s up for a bit of action.
Attention to detail is impressive in the busy set – consisting of a living room and kitchen – the impact of which “hits you” the moment you enter the theatre. Set and costume designer Hannah Lagudah has done a fine job. Forget subtlety. Pizza Man boxes you about the ears and leaves an indelible imprint. Notwithstanding its menacing underbelly, it is fun, fraught and frenzied. There is cold comfort in the words Alice delivers late in the piece: “Life’s a bitch and then you die.”
Director Kestie Morassi brings spark and polish to the morass that is Pizza Man. Why not take your turn to gorge yourself on a flavoursome offering with the lot? It is playing at 16th Street Actors’ Studio, 715 Glen Huntly Road, Caulfield South, until 27th July, 2024.
Alex First
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Alex First is a Melbourne based journalist and communications specialist. He contributes to The Blurb on film and theatre.
