In The Mens
La Mama Courthouse – April 19-30
Kieran Carroll’s In The Mens is an intimate series of snapshots exploring the Australian male identity. Originally performed in 2008, Carroll has since removed several monologues and added four new pieces.
Witty, dramatic and raw, Carroll’s monologues explore a broad variety of themes including love, loss and betrayal. Although the themes explored are not uniquely Australian, Carroll’s writing and direction in combination with Ben Maclaine’s and Ben Grant’s performances ensures these stories are told from a familiarly Australian perspective.
Opening as jockey Ronnie Rocket Smithen, or ‘shirtlifter,’ Maclaine’s bent-kneed, beer-chugging performance is impassionate and captivating. Telling stories of mistaken identity and subsequent insulting comments from his lover, he proclaims, “In Tassie, they still think you’re in grade three!” His incredulous description of the insults he’s received regarding his height – and his masculinity by association – showcases Carroll’s wit as well as Maclaine’s comedic timing.
Although his broad Australian accent is slightly too well enunciated, slipping occasionally into an almost cultivated accent, Maclaine redeems himself as he steps into a variety of Carroll’s characters with differing generational and geographical Australian dialects. As a Greek-Australian commuter dismissing his long-term girlfriend Theodora’s cheating accusations, Maclaine’s mannerisms are humorously unerring and his dialect impeccable. Maclaine’s physical performance almost impresses more than his seamless shift between dialects; returning to the second act as 142-year-old Bob, Australian’s curmudgeonly oldest dole bludger with an auditory addiction to Scandinavian porn, the only cause for distraction is the oddly conspicuous face mask peeling beneath his chin.
Aside from the obvious masks used for Bob and his 97-year-old wife Katya, Carroll uses little in the way of costumes to differentiate between characters, instead relying on Maclaine and Grant’s versatility. Similarly, the strength of the set lies in its consistency rather than its versatility. Few changes are made between performances. With the exception of one chair becoming a driver’s seat, the free-standing bar remains a bar, and the chair is a chair, even when there’s no one sitting there. The consistency of the set grounds the performances, supporting the sense that although each of these stories is unique, each also shares the same characteristics.
