Families – you can’t live with them, you can’t live without them.
That idiom may well apply to the characters in the sharp comedic drama Thinner Than Water, written by American Melissa Ross.
The action takes place in Richmond, Virginia in 2010.
It concerns a dysfunctional family that gets together for the elder sister Renee’s (Katharine Innes) birthday, when their father, Martin, is deathly ill.
I speak of highly competent, but stubborn and resentful Renee and her two half siblings (all of whom have different mothers).
Cassie (Amy Pollock), who works as a freelancer, isn’t good at commitment. She has just broken up with lawyer Henry (Jerome Meyer) for the fifth time in 18 months.
Employed in a comic bookstore, alongside Benji (Indigo Parer), who is romantically interested in Cassie, 32-year-old Gary (Matthew Elliott) is forever smoking pot.
Gary still lives at home in his mother’s garage.
He is also about to take on child minding responsibilities for the eight-year-old son of a single mother, Angela (Nicole Chapman).
While the other two are laid back, Renee is highly strung – all the time – and seemingly angry at everyone and everything.
She feels responsibility is always thrust upon her shoulders because Cassie and Gary can’t handle it.
Renee has no love for her father and is constantly bickering with her sister and brother.
With her father’s end near, she meets his incessant chatterbox girlfriend Gwen (Nin Macken) in hospital.
Things turn even more pear shaped when her dad passes.
Renee appears increasingly distanced from her husband Mark (Matt Trubiani), while Cassie seeks solace from a nonplussed Benji and Gary screws up with Angela.
It is the colourful, larger than life characters and their interactions that give Thinner Than Water its beating heart.
I thoroughly enjoyed the performances of the eight-strong cast. There wasn’t a weak link amongst them.
Renee’s vitriol is the glue that binds this production together and Katharine Innes does a fine job bringing her domineering persona to the fore.
There is significantly greater warmth and sympatico between Cassie and Gary, who are far more like minded.
Amy Pollock readily channels the scattered thoughts of the former, while a delightful comic turn from Matthew Elliott sees him assume the deliberately halting latter.
Nin Macken takes an hilarious runaway train approach to motormouth Gwen.
As Benji, Indigo Parer is a scene stealer in his interactions with Matthew Elliot.
Nicole Chapman is gifted some choice one liners in reading the riot act to Elliot and savours each of them.
Jerome Meyer brings nuance to ex-boyfriend Benji, while Matt Trubiani is the yin to Katharine Innes’ yang, displaying sensitivity and understanding.
Notwithstanding the collective strength of the acting, The LAB Theatre’s production had its issues.
Most significant was the lack of voice projection (the actors’ weren’t miked, which is fine if they speak up).
I was sitting six rows back and found it difficult to hear two scenes in particular, one being the opening and the other a pivotal tête-à-tête between husband and wife. The latter was almost whispered.
That isn’t good enough and surely something director Tim Williams should have addressed by night three, which is when I saw Thinner Than Water.
The other major issue was the transition between scenes. With the lights out, the back of house staff literally moved furniture in and out at every change. It was cumbersome and time consuming.
The blackouts were filled with audio driven phone calls between players, but the repetition of that theatrical device wore thin.
Further, at two hours and 20 minutes plus interval the play felt stretched.
Still, I don’t want you to think the piece doesn’t have merit. It most certainly does, only with a few tweaks it could be pithier and better.
Thinner Than Water is on at Alex Theatre in St Kilda until 25th August, 2024.
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