Review: Blue Love

(La Boite Theatre Company | Roundhouse Theatre, Kelvin Grove Urban Village, Brisbane | Until 9 May)

It is, appropriately, to the strains of Pat Benatar’s 1980s hit Love Is a Battlefield that Glenn (Shaun Parker, who also devised and choreographed the show) and Rhonda (Lucia Mastrantone) exit the stage at the end of Blue Love.

They have, after all, just spent a bit more than an hour demonstrating that the course of true love just ain’t meant to run smooth — that falling love is the easy bit and that trying to build a perfect relationship involves a lot of hard work and often quite a deal of angst and wishful thinking.

It’s a full-on 70 minutes that involves conventional theatre, song, dance and film. If there’s a weak point, it’s the segments of film, which could be difficult to see from some seats and which tended to confuse rather than enlighten to storyline — especially given that the on-screen Rhonda was played by Jo Stone rather than Lucia Mastrantone.

But mostly Blue Love works well, providing plenty of laughs and pop-culture gems. Parker’s nude scene — where he strips down to socks, shoes and a large, strategically held bunch of grapes — is hilarious. The final scene is also wonderful, with the couple trading blows using nothing but cheesy lines from hits such as The Angels’ Never Want to See Your Face Again, Abba’s Knowing Me, Knowing You and Barry Manilow’s Can’t Smile without You.

But there are some very poignant moments as well. Moments from my own relationships sprang to mind as I watched ... partners living in the same house but not really connecting ... living in parallel universes with kids and the mortgage being the only common ground ... thinking as a newly wed that you’ve found the perfect partner, or at least that you will have once you change a few things.

Certainly, Parker and Mastrantone show great athleticism and stamina. One-armed push-ups are difficult enough. Doing them while continuing dialogue must verge on the masochistic. And Parker shows a very fine countertenor voice.

Yes, love may be a battlefield, but there’s obviously also a time for negotiating truces ... as they left the stage, Glenn and Rhonda did take the door marked “The Bedroom”.

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