Three Little Words (Melbourne Theatre Company) ★★
There is something more than a little ersatz about Three Little Words, the latest play by Joanna Murray-Smith. It has all the usual parts, but it doesn’t feel like a real play.
It opens – you’ll never guess – in a suburban living room. Tess and Curtis (Catherine McClements and Peter Houghton), a convivial middle-aged couple, are celebrating their twentieth wedding anniversary. To celebrate this auspicious landmark, they’ve decided to get a divorce. Tess, it seems, has had enough. She still loves Curtis, but she finds him a bit of a bore. She wants more from life. More of what exactly she does not know. It’s just a feeling, a ‘yearning’. Curtis is quietly heartbroken but goes along with the plan because – well, why not? He is sensitive to a fault and determined to support his wife in everything. Even their teenage daughter (never seen) is cool with it.
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