It’s taken nearly six years for Angus Cameron’s play Australian Open to open in Melbourne, after it received a public reading here as part of Melbourne Theatre Company’s Cybec reading series. It was first produced at the Bakehouse Theatre in Sydney in 2020 and director of that production, Riley Spadaro, has returned to the text – since revised by Cameron – to premiere it here in the Australian Open's host city.
Cameron’s
play is a sharp satire about monogamy and expectations and the sort of ingrown
tradition that is difficult to resist. Felix’s boyfriend, Lucas, is a world-renowned
tennis player, who wants to win in front of his home crowd. Felix’s parents are
very supportive of the relationship, but they are also set in their ways: they
aren’t happy that Felix and Lucas enjoy an “open relationship”. They can’t wrap
their heads around it. They’ve been married so long, they can’t really imagine
their lives being anything else.
It’s
tempting to compare this story of a gay world-class athlete to last year’s
breakthrough phenomenon, Heated Rivalry, because it’s a queer romance
and the professional sport offers a colourful backdrop without feeling too much
like a sports narrative. But where the hockey love story was criticised as too heteronormative
or constrained by its classic romance structure, Australian Open tears
at the foundations of the will they/won’t they and argues for a world that
needs to be more open-minded. And it's not saddled with a "coming out" story at all. Central to its drama: gay marriage was a great achievement, but why fall into the
same traps as married couples have for time immemorial?
This show
takes wild comedy swings (and backhanders) as Felix’s parents start to question their stagnated lives
together, while he struggles with Lucas’ fame and whether or not one or the
other of them should pop the question. Jane Montgomery Griffith steals the show
as mother, Belinda, trying to decide whether she wants to open up her marriage
or maybe just climb Mount Everest. Alec Gilbert’s Peter, father and later Daddy,
is endearingly awkward as he tries to figure out what happens if his life-long
partnership falls apart.
Sebastian
Li’s Felix is animated in the way you would be watching your family fly
apart, while trying to keep them together for Christmas and New Years before
Lucas faces the first Grand Slam of the New Year. Enter Annabelle (Melissa
Kahraman), the prodigal daughter, who has flown to the other side of the world
to study science - casting the family’s troubles into sharp relief when compared to
the wonders of the universe.
Designer Harry
Gill drops the cast onto an Australian Open blue half-court where the
characters argue so much you wonder whether there can be love-all at all. Sidney
Younger’s lighting design helps with the transitions from heightened reality to
a kind of gay fantasia on international themes.
Cameron’s
script is a delight from beginning to end. Spadaro’s direction greases the
wheels, allowing the characters to slide from one hilarious moment to another.
There’s a lot being said in this story, but the comedy is allowed to land
without compromising it to make a point.
I read the published
version of Australian Open several years ago, during lockdowns, when I
was purchasing a lot of scripts online while I couldn’t go to the theatre.
Cameron’s work has evolved in the years since, his characters becoming spikier
and richer as a result, but it’s great to see this piece in Melbourne finally.
The changes he’s made tighten things up – and the last line of this new version
is a killer.
Australian Open is hilarious fom first serve to final smash.
- Keith Gow, Theatre First
Australian Open is running at Theatre Works as part of Midsumma until January 31
Photos: Sarah Clarke
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