OBSERVER: What’s Yours?
Fertility and friendship are twin forces in Keziah Warner’s new play, What’s Yours. Friends since university, Lia (CarissaLee) and Jo (Christina O’Neill) are polarised in their stance on having children.
Jo wants independence. Lia yearns for a child. The fact that they have betrayed each other over the attention of Simon (Kevin Hofbauer) who was Jo’s boyfriend and then Lia’s partner, complicates the dynamic when Lia seeks the eggs Jo has previously harvested and stored.
The awkwardness, guilt, doubt, anger and uncertainty are brilliantly captured by Kevin, Carissa and Christina.
These are believable characters grappling with contemporary relationships while, at the same time, coping with their own wishes when it comes to having children.
There is a tenuousness in staying together, when meeting the expectations of one’s partner, when addressing prospective parenthood, and when maintaining friendships.
Warner’s script picks over the personal desires and social demands facing individuals in an age when science and technology have provided greater opportunities for reproduction further complicating choices.
It is, perhaps, the friendship at the core of the play that provides the frisson which Warner has tried to balance with both pathos and humour when things don’t go according to plan.
There are hints of regret and loss over decisions in the past that could well have changed current situations.
Director, Isabella Vadiveloo, has set the opening scene behind a scrim curtain with blaring music to insinuate a carefree university party when the characters first meet.
This was slightly disconcerting when trying to establish character and content. But the interplay between the characters has been developed well; reflection is mixed with combativeness.
Bianca Pardo’s set design would allow for those aforesaid curtains to be used more dynamically to create spatial variety.
Red Stitch has staged the premiere of a thought-provoking play the subject matter of which is not just topical but prescient given society’s imposition of roles and expectations.
Performance Season: Until August 24
Venue: Red Stitch Actors’ Theatre, Rear 2 Chapel St, St Kilda East.
Bookings: https://www.redstitch.net/whats-yours-2025
Review by David McLean
From left: Kevin Hofbauer, Carissa Lee and Christina O’Neill in What’s Yours. Photo: Ben Fon.