[2015045] This Can’t End Well
David Innes @ The Science Exchange – Boardroom (RiAus)
6:00pm, Thu 19 Feb 2015
The RiAus has a bunch of wonderful – though under-used – performance spaces, but there’s a teensy little problem with the Boardroom: if it’s a light-ish crowd (and there were maybe only a third of the seats filled for this performance), it becomes a sleepy space, and… well… look, I was forty-odd shows into my Fringe. I may have dozed a little.
This Can’t End Well is a solo piece in which David Innes plays three characters from different generations in the same family. Each character is buffeted by an element of conflict: the great-grandmother, one of the few female scientists of her day, is spurned by her husband as she continues her research into acetone. The grandfather suffers from class inferiority, comically alternating between mellifluous play readings and his working-class voice. And there’s another character facing the prospect of coming out to his conservative family.
Innes delivers these three interleaved narratives with a sweet earnestness… and a truckload of humour. Even in the darkest moments of the performance, there’s another deliciously awful – and often highbrow! – pun right around the corner. The text is also surprisingly clever: there’s a lot of literary, scientific, and pop-culture references that could slide by if you weren’t aware of the topic… and I’m certain I missed a few!
Most of all, though, This Can’t End Well was a thoroughly enjoyable piece of theatre, perfectly suited to the RiAus (though I could have done without the DozeyRoom!). But the most memorable moment for me was entirely selfish: as the play closed out, Innes remarked “Not all stories can end well…”. At that very moment, my phone – which, for some reason, I’d left on Silent rather than Aeroplane Mode – buzzed in my pocket, and I knew (without looking) that it was my girlfriend sending me a sweet, sweet message. And my brain just sookily popped out a retort to Innes’ line: “No. Some stories can end brilliantly.”
(45) This Can’t End Well: Wonderfully entertaining personal multi-character tale(s). Great & sensitive performance. #ff2015 #ADLfringe
— Pete Muller (@festivalfreakAU) February 19, 2015