The Blonde the Brunette and the Vengeful Redhead at Maidment Theatre

Sheer ability makes Kerry Fox a joy to watch, despite the play's failings

A good night at the theatre will make you laugh, perhaps even cry, and leave you with thoughts and questions rattling around in your head long after the lights go down.

After watching Kerry Fox in the Auckland Theatre Company's production of The Blonde the Brunette and the Vengeful Redhead, I had just one question: How could you cast an actor of her talent in such a mediocre piece of playwriting?

Fox has made her name playing intelligent, edgy characters in film.

But for her Auckland theatre debut she is reduced to playing a series of ordinary people in what is essentially a suburban soap opera.

It is the theatre equivalent of watching an All Black playing in a ropey game of backyard rugby.

The expected thrill of enjoying the very considerable skills of Fox up close and intimate is replaced by a cheated feeling that the material is beneath her and doesn't give her a proper workout.

The Blonde, written by Australian Robert Hewett, tells the story of desperate housewife and ordinary mum Rhonda Russell, who accidentally kills another woman at the shopping mall - an innocent woman who Rhonda wrongly thinks is having an affair with her husband.

The structure of the play is clever, with seven related characters telling us in a series of monologues about the event and its aftermath.

Among others we hear from Rhonda, her husband, her neighbour and the partner and son of the woman who is killed.

But the plot is predictable, many of the characters are written as a one-note cliche, and the combination of comedy and tragedy jars.

Hewett puts his ordinary people in an extraordinary situation and then gives them only banalities and cliches with which to express themselves.

It makes for dull dialogue and is condescending towards so-called everyday people who can and do express themselves in interesting and moving ways, especially in moments of personal crisis.

Most of the action is set in suburban malls, a hospital, police station and prison.

But the set designed by Kate Hawley is at odds with these familiar places.

Inspired by installation artist Tony Oursler, Hawley encircles the stage with a white plastic curtain and litters it with plastic shop mannequins, fluorescent tubes, video screens and other modern detritus.

This high-art pretension is at odds with the suburban nature of the play.

Not only that, it has the effect of marooning Fox in an unrecognisable nowhere-land.

Despite the design problems and the lacklustre material, Fox is a joy to watch as she magically changes her physical appearance to inhabit her characters.

She seemed a little nervous at first and stumbled over some lines, but once she hit her rhythm she was engaging and charismatic.

The Blonde the Brunette and the Vengeful Redhead will probably sell out because people are keen to see Fox in action. Provided that is theatregoers' only expectation of the evening they will be richly rewarded.

What: The Blonde the Brunette and the Vengeful Redhead
When: Until September 16