Closer

9/10

Sexy, raunchy and emotional, wrapped around a beautifully decorated quilt of dry and boundless wit, SuTCo’s Closer will leave you in stitches and reaching for the tissues.

Based on a play by Patrick Marber, which was eventually made into a film starring Julia Roberts and Clive Owen among others, director Tasha Richards’s rendition of Closer depicts the lives of four erotically charged individuals. All the characters, by their very natures are unsuited to conventional romantic, let alone, regular human liaisons.

Dan (Todd Baker), an intelligent failed novelist, is unable to choose between sexy stripper Alice (Danielle Patrick) and sexually liberal photographer Anna (Anna Rowlands).

To make matters confusing, honest and desperately horny doctor Larry ends up infatuated with both women, leading to episodes of continuous

infidelity. The sexual entanglement between the characters was played out admirably, through a dialogue that was intoxicated with hilarity and dysphoria.

The chemistry between Baker and Hilliar was exceptional, typified in an internet scene, acted and directed beautifully.

A special tribute must be paid towards Baker’s performance as Dan. His representation of Dan’s mutability from an arrogant character to a dejected and lover is a class above the norm.

Patrick’s portrayal as the sexually deviant stripper was more than convincing too.

Her movements, her dancing and general aura eroticized and breathed life into a character that needs no introduction to sexual foreplay.

If the acting was impeccable, the staging and production team produced a faultless and creative backdrop, highlighted by the gloomy construction of four separate walls encapsulating death and morbidity in abundance.

Whilst this may have perhaps caused an unlikely contrast to the humour of the dialogue, it more than made up for its presence in the weight and influence it held towards the more emotional scenes of the play.

With the fantastic combination of the production team, the innovative stage management, flawless acting and some superb directing, SuTCo has really excelled itself beyond the limits of a student play. Closer was close to perfection.

–Jay Allan, Forge Arts, 19th February 2011

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