Review: SEX CELLS Explores Many Aspects Of Motherhood And Families

Reviewed by Barry Lenny, Thursday 19th May 2016

The Galleon Theatre Group is presenting Sex Cells, the first play by English writer, Anna Longaretti. It can be seen at the Domain Theatre in the Marion Cultural Centre where performances are presented in cabaret format, so take a light supper. Drinks can be purchased at the venue. This play had its premiere in 2013 and this is its Australian premiere, under the direction of Warren McKenzie.

Aphrodite, a sex toy company, employs four women to take telephone orders. Lily, Sylvie, Janice, and Tiffany are supervised by the ineffectual Mr. Causeway, who spends most of his time trying to keep the peace and get them to focus on doing their jobs, which is not an easy task, as they can wrap him around their little fingers.

Lesley Reed plays Lily, the top seller who wins the employee of the month award with monotonous regularity. Her home life, though, is far less successful, caught in a loveless marriage, and having a son with whom she exchanges telephone calls at Christmas and birthdays. Reed offers a superb performance as the world weary Lily, her interpretation telling us that Lily has been drifting along in a life that is going nowhere, and doing nothing just for her. Reed shows us, in every move and facial expression, a life of dull routine, where the only small pleasure that she gets is from Mr. Causeway's glowing appreciation of her cooking.

Sylvie, played by Anita Canala, is a French woman whose body clock has been ticking for far too long for her liking, and she is still trying to have a baby, with no success. It has become an obsession and nothing else in her life matters to her. She lashes out at Lily who she sees as having what she wants, a husband and son, a full family, but who doesn't seem to appreciate it. Canala, who has a convincing and consistent French accent, presents Sylvie as intensely emotional and demonstrative in a bravura performance.

Heather Riley plays Janice, who spends much of her time mediating between Lily and Sylvie, and drying tears, having a large family these are skills that she has in spades. Riley's Lily is clearly the strong person in the group, if four such diverse women can really be called a group, taking on the role of their 'mother hen'. Riley plays a very subtle role with great skill and plenty of warmth.

Laura Antoniazzi is Tiffany, the youngest of the group, who goes to clubs whenever she can, drinks rather too much, and has overnight love affairs. Antoniazzi gives a very good impression of an 'Essex Girl', intimating that Tiffany comes to work primarily to rest and recover from one night, before leaving work to do it all again. Tiffany is not the brightest spark, and quite a bit of the conversation in the room tends to go over her head, with Antoniazzi finding not just one, but a clever range of blank expressions that draw forth laughter.

Brian Godfrey takes on the role of Mr. Causeway, who has a secret crush on Lily, but lacks the nerve to say anything. Godfrey makes Causeway a well-meaning but bumbling man with a heart of gold, a long way from being an effective supervisor.

Apart from some inconsistency in English accents, nothing new in Adelaide's amateur theatre productions, my one real criticism was with the vast amount of music. Most of it could be profitably cut as it makes voices occasionally a little hard to hear but, more importantly, when the actors create some extremely powerful and emotive situations, it ruins completely ruins the effect. It is , presumably, supposed to be creating the atmosphere for the action, but it does the opposite and, in any case, if actors cannot create emotions withour music to help them, they should not be on stage. All this needs is a brief piece of music from house lights down to the start of the actions, and a few bars at each of the scene changes.

The set is well-defined into the despatch area, office, kitchen, and rest room, with different levels, and lighting changes, used to focus attention on particular parts of the set. Warren McKenzie who, I assume, designed the set and lighting, as nobody else is acknowledged, makes good use of space, which allows more room for movement that it at first appears.

There are lots of laughs, but also drama and tragedy in Longaretti's script, which McKenzie and the cast have brought to the point of a fine performance that will surely please audiences over the next couple of weeks.

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