CATCH AS CATCH CAN
CATCH AS CATCH CAN, Empress Theatre at the Old Fitz, 9-31 October 2026. Photography by Phil Erbacher
Mia Chung’s Catch As Catch Can, opening Off-Broadway in 2018 and now for the first time in Australia, needs some unravelling before its grip can be fully appreciated. Two blue-collar immigrant families, one Italian, the other Irish, are closely connected through the enduring friendship of matriarchs, Roberta Lavecchia (David Soncin) and Theresa Phelan (Andre de Vanny).
The play opens at a table in a comfortable but plain apartment. (A deceptively ingenious set design by Kate Beere.) The two battle-axes are enjoying coffee, cookies, and a good yak about Kate, Diana, and Meghan. Their nasal twangs and wisecracks suggest a familiar kind of comedy, but relax at your peril. With barely a blink, Soncin and de Vanny become Robbie and Tim, the sons of the two women, and another facet of the families and their relationships is revealed.
The entrance of Robin McLeavy signals another generation and a sibling: she is grumpy, mansplaining papa Lon Lavecchia, and also Daniela, his daughter. And if you’ve got to this point and are about to succumb to confusion: relax and go with the flow as Roberta and Theresa move on from the Royals to disapprove of a son’s romantic choice: Korean. Although Theresa airily points out that Korea and Ireland have a lot in common: they’re both islands. She’s not impressed or convinced by learning that Korea is a peninsula; her further reasoning is a geographic treat.
Close to the surface of the wisecracks and family squabbles is what’s laid bare by three actors taking on different generations, relationships and genders. There is the inevitable closeness – and its opposite of estrangement. And there are the intertwining and invisible ties that form loves and identities, and the pressures that can rip them apart. All these, most often discrete family factors, are shown to endure across time and generations.
Directed with a sure hand and intelligence by Anna Houston, the trio of six characters (and some 20 names) is jolted from comedy to drama and tragedy when Tim suffers a psychotic episode. Over time the family members spin out of their ordinary orbits as the extraordinary overtakes each in different ways.
Houston has said she has been wanting and waiting to produce this play for some eight years, and it might be as well that it’s taken so long. Catch As Catch Can is not an easy or obvious script. The three actors required to pull it off have to be not only the very best but also at the top of their game. And it’s hard to imagine it being enacted better than by De Vanny, Soncin and McLeavy. These three, in their different ways, are breathtaking, both individually and as a unit; they are a masterclass in ensemble acting.
Add to the human element Steve Toulmin’s dynamic musical interludes as they punctuate the action, and Aron Murray’s lighting that differentiates time and place with subtle washes and misdirections of audience attention. All the parts of this particularly enigmatic jigsaw puzzle of family life come together brilliantly into a rewarding, disconcerting 100 minutes. Recommended without reservation.
