THEATRE REVIEW: The Blind Date Project

Just as I generally eschew reading anything on art gallery placards other than the name of the artwork and its creator, I tend to avoid reading much about plays before seeing them – on the basis that if you have to study a mini thesis in order to appreciate what the piece is trying to communicate, then it's almost certainly failed in its purpose.

As such, I arrived for the opening night of Silo's The Blind Date Project knowing only that the play's premise involves lead actress Natalie Medlock having encounters with a succession of previously unknown potential suitors, played by an impressive line-up of 27 excellent actors (see below for an alphabetised list).

As such, I assumed the show would take the shape of a series of speed dates for Ms Medlock's character, in the environs of the cheerfully tacky karaoke bar into which designers Rachel Marlow and Charlotte Rust the Basement's have transformed Basement's black rectangular box of a theatre to enjoyably immersive effect.

The audience are all seated at tables (great for atmosphere, if not the sightlines of some patrons), you can buy drinks from the bar on stage before the start (though beware the acerbic tongue of bartender/supporting player Bryony Skillington if you linger over the transaction when the show's about to begin), and you can stay and satisfy your karaoke habit after the end.

The performance pretty much begins as soon as you step through the theatre door but the play "proper" starts with the arrival of Ms Medlock, who banters with the gimlet-eyed Ms Skillington and frets and fidgets with her phone as she awaits her assignations.

On opening night Nick Sampson turned out to be her first date. He and Ms Medlock played off one another well, revealing deftly drawn details of the desires and self-doubts that led their characters to this bar-side encounter with a nicely naturalistic rhythm, full of awkward blurts and conversational lulls that oscillate between comedy and pathos. Their chitchat is frequently interrupted by texts and phone calls that are prioritised over the person in front of them, an effective skewering of this endemic social barbarism that elicited knowing laughs from the audience.

On opening night Mr Sampson also turned out to be Ms Medlock's only blind date, something it took me a while to work out was the case.

About 15 minutes in I was starting to worry the evening was going to turn into the theatrical equivalent of the Bataan Death March if each of the assumed 27 cameos was going to take this long. At around the 30 minute mark I finally figured out Mr Sampson was all we were going to get, a realisation that caused a fleeting sense of disappointment (I mean, just look at that cast list – seeing short, concentrated bursts of that talent roster all in one evening would surely have been a thorough-going treat).

That said, Mr Sampson is a very able and appealing performer – the way he credibly nailed his character's naivety was both funny and touching – and so is Ms Medlock, who brings a crackling nervous energy and lightning wit to her role as an under-pressure young woman who's hoping for a hook-up to shore up her fraying sense of self.

In short, they made a cute couple and at performance's end (the running time was bit under 90 minutes) their decision to leave the bar together for a more intimate setting was a satisfying conclusion to an entertaining evening, even if the play seemed somewhat slim in its thematic concerns.

Reading The Blind Date Project's programme and publicity material after attending the show went a long way to explaining that slightness, as well as the show's singular strengths.

The format was devised by director Tanya Goldberg with Bojana Novakovic, Mark Winter and Thomas Henning (her collaborators at Sydney’s Ride On Theatre) as a kind of theatrical boot camp to prepare Ms Novakovic for the demands of another production – in particular, singing and performing in front of a live audience again after a long stint working in television.

Because that other production required Ms Novakovic to learn a lot of lines, The Blind Date Project was conceived as an improvisation, with a new, unrehearsed actor as her date each night and directorial guidance provided by Ms Goldberg during the performance via those texts and phone calls (in hindsight, then, that knowing laughter was clearly because, unlike me, at least some of the audience were aware of the project's parameters).

The show has apparently been developed over productions since the original staging, with the largely unseen structure tightened and various other tweaks made – this iteration includes the interactivity of Ms Skillington live tweeting tasty quotes-as-they-happen, for instance.

I'm a big fan of the actor's craft, and reckon fearless yet disciplined improvisation is one of its purest expressions. As a result, I'm sure I would have enjoyed the evening even more if I'd gone in with an understanding of what the overall undertaking involved, and my admiration of the cavalcade of corker comic lines enhanced if I'd known they were off-the-cuff (while playing a game of 'bed, wed or kill' with reference to herbs, for example, Ms Medlock hilariously opined she "would f*** mint because it's prolific").

As already stated, however, my ignorance was no barrier to being entertained – and now, having read the above, you, gentle reader, are far better equipped than I was to fully appreciate the experience.

My one abiding niggle is a hankering to go and see The Blind Date Project again (and perhaps again), to see what other guest stars bring to the party – which is much more a compliment than it is a complaint, clearly.

It does strike me, however, that in this regard Silo's marketing campaign missed a beat by not spelling out the script-less, serial nature of the show (especially on its striking but resolutely uninformative posters) and offering heavily discounted tickets for multi-night attendees intrigued by the opportunity to watch the season evolve.

Even as just a one-night stand, though, it's a good time, and is recommended as such.

• The Blind Date Project plays at Auckland's Basement Theatre until 29 November. Book here.

Cast:

Natalie Medlock
Bryony Skillington
Fasitua Amosa
Jess Holly Bates
Michelle Blundell
Jamie Bowen
Jonny Brugh
Byron Coll
Oliver Driver
Barnie Duncan
Jesse Griffin
Sophie Hambleton
Michael Hurst
Rawiri Jobe
Stephen Lovatt
Brett O'Gorman
Chris Parker
Antonia Prebble
Jarod Rawiri
Cameron Rhodes
Ryan Richards
Madeleine Sami
Nic Sampson
Sam Snedden
Jackie Van Beek
Curtis Vowell
Matt Whelan
Gareth Williams
Edwin Wright