CLOSER

This explicit play is sure to keep audience members on their toes. If not for its explicit, touching content, then out of constant suspense that someone will take their clothes off just inches from your face. Written by Patrick Marber, this fantastic performance exposes the fickle and irrational nature of love, sex and conventional relationships. Set in the new space District 01, with white chairs surrounding the centre of the pale room where the performance takes place, the audience is set up to be intimately involved in the action.
“There is a raw nerve in Marber’s work that, in my opinion, surfaces best in live performance. I want the audience to feel this nerve so I decided to remove the play from a conventional theatre and transplant it into the electric space of District 01,” said director and designer Dino Dimitriadis. And he absolutely achieved this. With powerful and hilarious performances, this space allows us to be completely swallowed into this sometimes ugly, but inevitably familiar, world of lust and jealousy. Especially for those of us who despised the movie (starring Natalie Portman and Jude Law), this was a wonderful experience. Cat Martin’s stunning performance as Anna is especially memorable. After her role as Hamlet’s mother with Harlos Productions, she may have just become this author’s favourite Sydney actress.

Until Jun 26, District 01, 74-76 Oxford Street, Darlinghurst, $22-30, moshtix.com.au

BY HENAR PERALES