Theatre Review: Cost of Living

 The Play: Cost of Living by Martyna Majok

The Company: Melbourne Theatre Company

The Theatre: The Southbank Theatre

Until: 19 October

Stars: 4 (with reservations)

Walking out of tonight's performance of Cost of Living, Jay made the comment, "Well, the MTC has ticked all of their diversity boxes for the year." 

And it did. 

In mostly a good way. There was the indigenous actor (Aaron Pedersen), an Asian actor (Mabel Li), a queer actor (Rachel Edmonds) and two actors in wheelchairs (Oli Pizzey Stratford and Edmonds). But in a play about carers and those receiving care, you would expect this diversity. 

I went into this play without reading reviews or bugging friends about relating their experience with the play. Jonella and Norty went early in the season but remained tight-lipped. 

I'm glad I went in blind. 

According to the MTC website the synopsis of the play is this:

"When Ani (Rachel Edmonds) is reunited with her estranged husband Eddie (Aaron Pederson) after a devastating accident, their relationship shifts from divorcing to caregiving. John (Oli Pizzey Stratford) is an affluent PhD candidate with cerebral palsy and has no qualms about making his support worker – fellow graduate student and bartender-by-night Jess (Mabel Li) – uncomfortable about her reasons for choosing the job."

The two hours of this play (with no interval) I found patchy to begin with, to the point that I microslept through the first 20 minutes, missing critical bits which would have the play easier to follow.

But then it took off, and took off in a major way, leading to a crescendo which you don't see coming. 

What I did like about the middle, and end sections of the play was the unexpected nature of it all. The bathroom scenes in the middle of the play had the audience spellbound. In particular, Li and Pizzey Stratford's performances are incredibly brave, and visceral. 

But - I wasn't too keen on a couple of aspects. Firstly, this was performed using New York accents. Pedersen's, in particular, was distracting. And I do get why they didn't move the location of the play from New York to somewhere in Australia, as with a play about disability, and the disparities in care and what money can provide, if this was set here this would end up being a two-hour diatribe about the NDIS. 

With the exception of the first third of the play, Anthea Williams' direction is sound. The relationships develop naturally, then come to their difficult conclusions. 

In all, I did enjoy this play. I can see the criticisms that some may have about this being disability porn or it's glorification of the down-trodden carer. 

It's a lot more than this. 

Today's song: