'Take a Chance on Me' at the Maidment

By SUSAN BUDD

MAIDMENT THEATRE, Auckland - In 25 years of writing plays, Roger Hall has always had a keen eye for the preoccupations of New Zealanders of the generation that worked for the old, secure public service, endured the tedium of dinner parties and invested in the share market before the 1987 crash. Many are now divorced or widowed and looking for love the second time around.

Hall employs elements of comedy-sketch writing technique in charting the trials of the newly single. In a series of short scenes, those who meet at a "dinner for six" are taken through the steps to achieving their goal of finding Mr or Ms Right. Personal columns, internet chat rooms, blind dates set up by well-meaning friends and even a holiday at Club Med are all obstacles rather than means to their end.

Pharmacist Tim, who despite an exceedingly nerdish exterior has a heart of gold, has possibly the worst of it, deserted in the midst of seduction for a better offer. The usually suave Peter Elliott lends him pathos and a degree of awkward charm.

Fiona Samuel irradiates the role of Fleur, a tearful and dowdy schoolteacher who has ghastly kids, with a depth of humanity lacking in the other characters.

Rima Te Wiata makes the most of her comic opportunities as Eleanor, a lawyer with Remuera vowels and elevated tastes, while Bruce Phillips plays a retired bank manager to the roguish hilt.

Greg Johnson is the epitome of the Kiwi bloke as Westie plumber Brian and Liddy Holloway is the little Kiwi battler who finally gets her man.

The angelic duo of Eric and Liz, played with panache by Stuart Devenie and Jennifer Ludlam, are the presiding genii who provide jaunty narration and a succession of quick-change characters.