Fourthcoming

Sex, liquid courage and finding Mr. Right are age old themes in the dating game, but they’ve been given an up-to-the-minute contemporary and interactive twist in Nelle Lee’s  Fourthcoming, a riotous rom-com from the Shake and Stir team. This is one show where you are encouraged to use your phone, checking in with the app on the seat in front of you, and participating in the action and end result.

Opening with a near naked Johnny Balbuziente and Cece Peters copulating in bed, it sets the scene for a raunchy night of theatre. But then reality strikes and we discover this is not reality but 30-something Gwen’s wet dream. She then tells us it is her fourteenth this week and asks Siri on her iPhone how many wet-dreams a week is normal (she talks to Siri a lot).

Gwen is in a rut. Too many first dates where she over imbibes that never lead to a second, she’s determined to right the wrongs of the past and sets out to have four first dates with a succession of guys and finally get to that all important second date. Sebastian is a bookish guy who reads the classics, Franco a conspiracy theorist, Sandy, a mini-golf enthusiast, and Aaron a virgin and nerd. The delight of the piece is that all the guys are played by Married at First Sight’s Balbuziente.

Cece Peters is fabulous as insecure Gwen, who normally works to a pub crowd in her day job, and keeps making these monumental dating mistakes, by getting pissed at the drop-of-a-hat when things aren’t going well. She’s likeable, believable, and could be any 30-something woman out there who’s lonely.

Having a genuine reality TV star in the cast is a big plus, and the buffed Balbuziente comes through with four perceptive mini-portraits of a range of guys, with their pluses and insecurities. Extremely likeable, he and Peters work wonders as a team, producing laugh after laugh.

It’s all played out on Josh McIntosh’s cleverly designed set, a series of panels on a revolve that reconfigures as a bedroom, Art Gallery, restaurant and putt-putt green. Kudos to Craig Wilkinson’s video design, Jason Glenwright’s lighting, and Guy Webster’s sound, which all added another dimension to the production, and to Nelle Lee’s script and to her and Nick Skubij’s direction which has produced this comic gem.

Like a TV reality show, the finale has the audience voting as to who Gwen should end up with as her happily-ever-after. Last night it was Franco, a popular choice.

If Stage Whispers issued star ratings, I would rate this show with as many stars as the Southern Cross.

Peter Pinne