Me & My Friend
Potato Theatre Company @ Little Games Room
7:00pm, Mon 11 Mar 2002
Score: 9
Short Review: Touching
Penned by UK playwright Gillian Plowman, “Me & My Friend” is actually one act of a full-length play, and deals with the story of two 40-ish men recently “released” from a (now closed) psychiatric hospital, in the guise of an “early-release” program.
Encouraged to prepare themselves for the trials of the real world again, we see Oz and Bunny engage in all manner of role-playing. Oz – troubled by his own lusts, and feeling rejected by his deceased mother – adopts his pre-psychiatric-hospital persona as a postman to fixate on the woman in the flat upstairs (the link to the other “half” of the play, not seen here). Bunny has a more violent and troubled presence – having lost his marriage to his work obsession, he feels an overwhelming need to succeed at his forthcoming job interview (and I noticed he was wearing a suit, tie and trakky daks!). Their relationship is very… odd-couple-ish, which lends itself to light-hearted moments: “being circumcised gives you confidence!”.
This is a very poignant play, presenting a very special friendship and then destroying it in a genuinely touching moment at the end of the piece. Wonderful Fringe theatre. Not only that, but it uses the word “lugubrious” (for the third time this Fringe).