They have pulled out all the stops for the wedding of Jodie and Mike. Inside the dockside marquee are pretty pink tablecloths, strings of lights and hoops of carnations. The guests get raffle tickets and “just married” Love Hearts. The bride looks dreamy in white and with any luck no one will notice the bridesmaid has gone awol.
You will have attended just such a union of young professionals yourself. You will recognise the groom’s wayward stag night, the bride’s last-minute jitters, the father’s pride, the mother’s sentimentality and the irritating habits of the new in-laws. All are duly ticked off in Maureen Lennon’s play for Middle Child, along with the engagement party, the boozy dress fitting and the heart-to-hearts with the bride’s raucous best friend.
Such familiarity is a limitation. In real life, one wedding is pretty much like another, a formula that works, but on stage, it is cosy and unsurprising. The decision of director Paul Smith to interrupt the dialogue with aerial movement and the occasional overblown ballad does not make it less so.
We hunger, therefore, for Lennon’s greater purpose, which is to call out the misogyny of the seemingly decent blokes in Jodie’s life. Behind the family-man sheen of father Phil (Dan McGarry), with the complicity of fiance Mike (Jonathan Raggett), lies the urge to control and exploit women. The playful friendship of Jodie (Laura Meredith) and Lucy (Elle Ideson) is not without its vulgar humour, but it is sweet and innocent by comparison.
This adds grit to the soap-opera sequence of bedroom exchanges, staged by designer Bethany Wells on a raised platform surrounded by the audience’s cabaret tables, even if you can see what is coming by the end of the first act. Unnecessary amplification flattens the actors’ performances, but Meredith and Ideson establish a warm and credible relationship, their brisk interplay reflecting shared experiences from childhood sleepovers to playground dalliances and onwards to grownup commitment. Ideson’s breakdown as the victim of sexual abuse is harrowing and convincing.
The bluster of the men is less subtly observed, but Lennon has pertinent things to say about the insidious hold of patriarchal power and the smokescreen of a perfect wedding.
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