‘Perfect Arrangement’: Fierce Women Lead Riotous, Resonant 50s Farce

Patrick Kennedy’s Perfect Arrangement is a riotous, defiant ride that barrels through madcap farce before slipping behind the couples’ lavender marriages,  and quietly shoving a lump in your throat.

Set in 1950s America during the Lavender Scare, Topher Payne’s play explores a world of surveillance, fear, and forced conformity—one that led to the earliest stirrings of the United States’ gay rights movement.

Despite its period setting, the play feels painfully relevant today, as queer protections are challenged and identities re-policed, a reminder that the fight is far from over and worth a better future.

Perfect Arrangement follows Bob and Norma, supposedly upstanding State Department officials tasked with hunting sexual “deviants”. Behind the veneer, they’re queer, married to each other’s partners and juggling a precarious web of secrets.

Kennedy leans into 50s sitcom-style shenanigans—over-the-top characters, guffaws, non-stop ad-libs—while threading intimate tension, highlighting just how oppressive these hidden lives feel.

The heart of the play lives with its women, who, in this case, run the show. Jordan Thompson‘s Millie is electric—all fidgeting limbs, word vomit delivery and restless energy, turning anxiety into something endearing and genuinely funny.

Dominique Purdue’s Norma is the emotional core: tortured, fiery and magnetic as she cracks under the mounting pressure of performance. Her romance with Millie anchors the story in a refreshing counterpoint to the pervasive misogyny.

Brooke Ryan as Kitty Sunderson is an absurd riot, nailing blissful ignorance with trills, pills and perfect timing.

Lucinda Jard’s Barbara Grant, a fabulously icy femme fatale/not-so-evil bisexual in fitted black and red gloves, delivers barbs and heartbreak with equal force, slicing through with sheer presence.

Brock Cramond’s Jim Baxter charms with sass and physicality, while Luke Visentin’s Bob grounds the story as a puppylike yet smarmy borderline villain, trapped by the system he upholds and doling out casual misogyny.

The chemistry between them crackles with heat.

The ensemble shines, bringing nuance to each character that makes the stakes feel real.

And their American accents, sustained over two hours of rapid dialogue, are impressively consistent.

Kennedy’s direction and design team sharpen an already great script, heightening its duality and look.

Creeping closer as the play goes on, the kitsch set hits all the right 50s sitcom vibes— screaming ‘Murican reds and blues, portraits with censored eyes adding a perfectly off-kilter edge.

Costuming is just as eye-catching with high-waisted pants, period accurate hair and colourful, well-shaped outfits that pop.

With an applause light hangs above and ad reads pop up between scenes, the overall effect is transportive yet jarring—exactly on-brand for the play’s satire.

The lighting and design make you feel how tight, controlled and constantly on edge the world is beneath the laughter.

At times, the intensity and pace flirt with exhaustion. Some sequences push so hard that subtlety briefly slips. But the production knows when to pull back, and let stillness or a perfectly-timed joke carry the weight.

Layering performances within performances, Payne’s writing is quick, sharp and timeless, and the cast and crew do it full justice.

The show also confidently balances broad sitcom tropes with the darker realities lurking beneath. You truly feel the weight of the characters’ choices: whether to fight and be free or keep their heads down in complacency

Presented as a part of Mardi Gras+, Perfect Arrangement is sharp, cheeky and entrancing, luring you in with big laughs for a resonant story worth listening to.

Perfect Arrangement is on till 7 March at New Theatre as part of Sydney Mardi Gas Festival 2026.