The Sum of Us

Although this play is 25 years old, it comes up fresh, funny and thought provoking in a sparkling production by Gene David Kirk. The complications of having a totally supportive father for a young gay man put a twist on the standard coming out drama. How will others react to this honesty between father and son? How will they deal with those reactions? David Stevens twists our expectations as the play develops in unexpected ways towards a possibly happy ending but with realism that avoids sugary simplicity.

David Sheilds has created another compact, effective set with a major transformation which makes the most of limited space while allowing plenty of room for the action. Lovely detail to the sides makes you believe this home does spread beyond the stage. Lights and sound add much to the experience and distract us from the train noises and occasionally over enthusiastic audience members.

Stephen Connery-Brown portrays Harry as a Dad to love but despair of: he hits a lovely blend of care and brashness; sensitive to his son’s dream of romance yet unaware of his intrusion into that dream. His own search for love through a dating agency adds the parallel line; will he succeed or be disappointed? How many in the audience cheered when he made his decision? Great timing for his laughs.

Jeff is played by Tim McFarland with loveable, exasperated frustration. Desperate to hit it off with Greg, we sympathise at the farce-like intrusion of Harry thrusting his acceptance into their chance to get further. Tim uses his asides to great effect, drawing us in to sympathise with this lost little boy yearning for a love beyond the deep tie with his father.

Rory Hawkins gives Greg just the right diffidence and confusion when he meets the father and son who have a relationship which is so different to his own. Great delicacy in the contrast in his body language between the shy first meeting and his return in the garden.

Annabel Pemberton’s Joyce is totally credible: she is not the baddie because of her views – she feels she cannot trust Harry because he feared to tell her something which up till then he had boasted he was comfortable with. His son’s homosexuality was fine until it might question his own chance of a relationship. And she can lay a comedy line with the best of them.

All the actors show great timing to achieve the comedy. David Stevens allows enough mockery of Aussie traits without making anything caricature. There are subtle links and repetitive references which allow the characters to develop and builds the fun.

The pace of the show speeds, ebbs and flows to move everything along so that it is a surprise that we have reached the end without a single moment of distraction or checking of watches. GD Kirk’s handling of the asides to the audience is perfect: we flow from dialogue to monologue and back without a thought of how contrived this could be. It simply works.

Each character misses so many chances in this superbly crafted play. That should leave the audience disappointed but on the contrary we all came out uplifted and wishing these oddly matched four people better luck in their futures. We hope they will seize the chance which is promised at the end. Oh, I forgot – they were acting.

This is a play so carefully directed and performed that I believed without a question. What a satisfying, funny piece of work!

Derek Benfield