Note [to subeditor at the Canberra Times]: keep ampersands in Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice – this was the original film title.
Baby Boomer Blues by Alan Becher. Perth Theatre Company at The Q Theatre, Queanbeyan until July 2. Bookings: www.theq.net.au
What a funny play! Amanda Crewes's Carol, who has been 39 for the last 5 years, bounces on and off Greg McNeill's 53 year-old Bob, so there's lots of funny ha-ha. This makes for an enjoyable evening. Certainly on opening night last Friday, baby boomers laughed and occasionally shuddered, as they recognised in themselves Bob having gone to the kitchen, and come out again without doing what he had gone there to do. This was not a senior moment, he claimed. But they all knew better. Viagra gets a mention, too. I'm sure they well remembered the 1969 film Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice, completely unknown to Gens X, Y or Z.
Bob is a traditional Australian joker – really quite old-fashioned, covering up his insecurities, more conservative than he thinks he is, not really quite up with his own generation (despite saying how great the Woodstock movie was) and needing to find something important to do with his life after years of disillusionment. It's hard at first to imagine why Carol became his third wife some time before she was 39. Perhaps it was his air of vulnerability that attracted her, and indeed it is through her efforts that their marriage does not fall apart, and Bob does make a real decision.
Dealing with these complexities of character and subtleties in the relationship is where Becher's writing is funny peculiar. Through the first half and some way into the second the play seems to be no more than light comedy, full of jokes and banter, even in argument scenes. Then suddenly the atmosphere changes and we are expected to take Bob and Carol's conflict very seriously. It switches again as they perform in the holiday island entertainment, and again as they go to volunteer their services in a good cause.
So the play turns out to be one of good intentions, a kind of romantic comedy with satirical possibilities, but too contrived for me to accept as a top quality work. Fortunately, Crewes and McNeill are up to the challenge, keeping the energy up, making the most of good timing and providing a neat night's entertainment.
©Frank McKone, Canberra
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