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THE PARIS LETTER
Review

THE PARIS LETTER

March 18 2012

THE PARIS LETTER, Darlinghurst Theatre Company at the Darlinghurst Theatre, to March 25 2011. Photos by Fiona Chapman: Nicholas Papademetriou and Peter Cousens (above); Caleb Alloway and Damian Sommerlad.

Billed as one of the centrepieces of the 2012 Sydney Mardi Gras, The Paris Letter is a solidly written play that has been given a spectacularly good production by Darlo and director Stephen Colyer. First staged in New York in 2005, Jon Robin Baitz's two act exploration of money, love and courage (or their absence) is old fashioned story telling of the most entertaining kind.

The Paris Letter is one that arrives in New York, written by Sandy to Katie at a crucial point in a 40-year triangular relationship between them and Anton. Their story is confided to the audience by Anton in an intimate and easy narration. He's as camp as a row of tents, the epitome of old style-queen chic in a peach-pink shirt and flamboyant boutonniere; all elegant hands, twinkling eyes and naughtily imparted disclosures. 

Peter Cousens is a revelation in this pivotal role. The familiar song-and-dance man is nowhere in evidence; in his place is an actor who imbues the sadder, wiser and older Anton with a convincing and touching humanity. It's made all the more credible by the depth and honesty of the impishly charming, knowingly mannered characterisation - Anton is the brittle confection on which the weight of the play depends and Cousens manages it without apparent effort or visible thought. When he announces that an early job was for MGM in Hollywood, where he was in charge of brocade and frogging, it's at once funny and serious; altogether a delicious performance.

In contrast, his one-time lover (just three months, 40 years ago) and lifelong best friend Sandy (Nicholas Papademetriou) is a roiling mess of contradictions and makes a persuasive and unselfish foil for Cousens. He is deeply conventional, a fearful, dutiful Jewish son, a reluctant but successful investment broker who totes a portfolio groaning with millions of dollars' worth of clients' money, and he is married to the only woman he's ever loved - successful restaurateur Katie - who is in partnership with Anton. And Anton introduced them in the first place...it's a tangled web.

It's also an intricate weave of love and friendship - plausible and plausibly wrought over the years. The two men are portrayed as their younger selves by Damian Sommerlad as young Anton and Caleb Alloway as young Sandy. These two are observed by the older men as they play out the realities of being homosexual in America in the early 1960s. Early on Anton decides that he has one life to live and it's not going to be ruined by fear and dishonesty; poor Sandy takes the other route. His guilt and self-loathing is as passionate as his attraction to Anton; he consults a psychiatrist (Papademetriou again, very effective) whose comical, pipe-smoking bonhomie is a chilling cover for an ostensibly benign but rabid belief that he can "cure" his patients of their "illness".

THE PARIS LETTER

As the woman at the apex of the human triangle, Susie Lindeman is a funny, sophisticated Kate whose life journey takes her down unexpected and unwelcome paths to eventual betrayal and humiliation. As well, in the middle of the play Lindeman sidetracks into an equally effective cameo as Sandy's very Jewish mother, taken to dinner by her son as he vainly attempts to pluck up the courage to tell her something she already knows. Altogether, Lindeman gives a tremendously effective dual performance full of nuance, heart and intelligence. 

The Paris Letter is funny, smart and humane; from time to time it teeters on the edge of melodrama, but is none the worse for that. It's a reminder - if any were needed in this time of Katter-inspired nastiness and ignorance - that homosexuality is neither easy nor undemanding. It's a life - not a "lifestyle", as so many inanely describe it - that should be rich and full, but is often fraught with cruelty and pain. And whether that pain is seemingly self inflicted, as is Anton's, it's actually caused by outside pressures that may have changed since the 1960s, but still lurk in the shadows of prejudice and fear.

The Paris Letter is rich and absorbing entertainment; it provokes laughter and tears and some surprise twists and turns along the way. The five actors are strong and with Colyer's sure hand in placing them in the always tricky space, as well as finessing the passage of time and switches of emotional focus, the production crackles with energy, insight and purpose. Much of that comes from Peter Cousens - he is a revelation as the deceptively fragile Anton. Susie Lindeman too - her comic timing is impeccable and her understanding of the effect of the tiniest gesture makes her a joy to watch. Recommended without reservation.

 

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