Mating In Captivity

After our dinner in Capitol, we zipped around the corner to catch the evening’s entertainment, Mating In Captivity at BATS Theatre. We were a little early and, whilst milling about in the somewhat cramped foyer/bar, Nicola spotted White Man Behind A Desk (aka Robbie Nicol) so we had a quick chat with him. He’s taking his show to Auckland and Dunedin shortly.

Then we climbed the stairs to the Heyday Dome, with a stage fitted out as an apartment, where all the action takes place. The play starts with Jacob, just landed at the airport, calling Rob and asking if he can spend the night, as he hasn’t got anywhere to stay. Rob, who appears to be at some sort of party, agrees, but fails to tell Annie. When Rob and Annie get home, they find that Jacob has not only let himself in, but is sleeping, naked, in the bed.

The blurb for the play warns that the play contains “nudity, coarse language, sexual themes, and more nudity”.  And yes, it does. The play unfolds over the rest of the night, as Rob’s current and past relationships are revealed, and the protagonists try to figure out how they stand in relation to each other. The fact that two of them are married is an added complication. Along the way there are a lot of laughs, particularly from Annie, who gets most of the good lines; and also an amount of physical comedy, bloodshed and vomiting. Things almost come to a somewhat messy resolution by the end, and the lights go down; then come back up, to the trio dancing to The Bloodhound Gang’s “The Bad Touch”.

Basically, it’s a romcom.