It sounds like a bright idea: two lauded Australian dramatists, Andrew Bovell and Hannie Rayson, tackle a marital break-up from different perspectives. But, although their play has some disquieting home truths, what emerges is their shared dislike of a certain kind of bullishly hetero, emotionally insensitive Australian male.
Matthew is a 42-year-old Sydney publisher whose marriage and business are both on the rocks. Somewhat rashly, he has also commissioned his wife, 38-year-old Nina, to write a biography of a legendarily womanising Australian politician. But, in the Bovell-written first half, Matthew instantly emerges as a bit of a prick: shouty with his subordinates and intolerant of the new genre of Sydney gay-lit. Although Bovell is supposedly giving us Matthew's point of view, you begin to wonder how his wife put up with his macho bluster for so long.
It's only in the superior second half, written by Rayson from Nina's angle, that you begin to get a sense of the situation's complexity. Not only is Nina tougher than her husband, she also understands that he is a victim of a culture where men feel threatened by female independence. In a calculated echo of A Doll's House, she tells Matthew: "You talked about changing, but you never did anything about it." You even forgive such oddities as the fact that Nina, for a biographer, seems strangely devoid of pen or tape recorder because the second half vindicates what you might call the play's Rayson d'être.
Given that it's co-authored, it also seems logical that it should be jointly staged by Phoebe Barran and James Kyle Wilson, both products of the Orange Tree's trainee director scheme. They neatly solve the play's technical and emotional problems. And, even if Julia Webber's shrewd, maturely sexy Nina wins one's sympathy, Martin Ritchie effectively conveys the angst under Matthew's aggro. Andrew McDonald also gives a punchy performance as the Oz politician who has turned into a scourge of the corporate bullies. But while recognising the play's truths ("Why," asks Nina, "do men always put work first?"), I can't help feeling that it would be even better if the liberally minded Bovell and Rayson didn't have quite so much in common.
· Until June 25. Box office: 020-8940 3633.
