Review: Complex characters under pressure in Covid lockdown bubble

Jason (Jared Wooldrige) (left) and Gabriel (Nick Hall) in Owen Mooney's One Night in Lockdown. Photo / Tony Mckay

● One Night in Lockdown, Written and directed by Owen Mooney, Meteor Theatre, Hamilton, opening night. Reviewed by GEOFF LEWIS.

The Government has announced a Covid lockdown and the public has been urged to stay in their immediate social circles to help reduce the opportunity for the disease to spread.

One Night in Lockdown opens as couple Louisa (Janine Swainson) and Jason (Jared Wooldridge) stagger in from a night out.

Louisa is well hammered and sets about badgering Jason - who then discovers she has invited another couple - Jessica (Isabella Falconer) and Gabriel (Nick Hall) to share their 'bubble'.

They arrive with their baby. Everyone is preloaded with emotional battle-damage. One revelation follows another as the tiny creature becomes the fulcrum for a series of breakdowns and yelling matches.

The characters are complex. Just how complex makes itself apparent during the performance as the scenes follow like the pages of a book.

Mooney has based the dysfunctional nature of the characters on the work of American Playwright Edward Albee - the creator of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf and one of the early exponents of the Theatre of the Absurd.

One Night in Lockdown is clever work by Mooney who has a deft eye for nuance and big ups for Swainson, who acts her boots off. The performance also demonstrates the utility of the Meteor as one of New Zealand's better 'black-box' theatres.

One Night in Lockdown, written and directed by Owen Mooney, can be seen at the Meteor Theatre, No 1 Victoria St, Friday, November 4 and tomorrow, Saturday November 5, 7pm, Tickets: $20.

CONTENT WARNING: R18 - suitable for mature audiences. This show contains coarse language and references to sexual violence and suicide.