Performance: Ponsonby Road

Maidment Studio

Review: Susan Budd

A gay play in both the old and the new senses of the word, Ponsonby Road is a light-hearted farce in which carefree 30-somethings find love and a new home.

Money is no object and jobs are merely adjuncts to the real business of life - having fun and finding Mr or Ms Right.

The plot centres on Dylan, who returns from 14 years' OE, searching for a soul and bedmate, on the death of his mother. He inherits Sappho Books and becomes an honorary lesbian.

In search of a more Sapphic clientele, he shifts from Mt Roskill to Ponsonby and Cupid's bow is busy at the opening of the new bookshop.

He locks eyes with Pete, a cute gardener, and Rad, the owner of Wondrous Women, an outdoor adventure group, and falls into the arms of Bridget, a closet lesbian married to a Remuera optometrist.

The course of true love does not run smooth, but all ends happily in the best of all possible pansexual worlds.

The play is at its best in its gentle satire of Ponsonby people and its comedy of contemporary sexual mores, as the progress of each courtship moves in counterpoint.

Pete's HIV-positive status is of equal weight to the inconvenient presence of Bridget's husband in this world. They are a bore, but it is possible to live with them.

Ponsonby Road moves in fits and starts, with some set-piece scenes not well integrated into the action. The second, climactic act is very short and the play might work better with no interval to disrupt the flow and energy.

Gals, a gay and lesbian choir, provide great musical accompaniment but are less effective as a Greek chorus, appearing uncertain of their moves in crowd scenes.

Duncan Allan shines in the contrasted roles of Pete and Allan, the smooth real estate agent, and as Rad, Verity George has a delightfully warm presence.

John Parker's stylish set provides a simple backdrop to a production that still requires more polish and attack to be completely successful.