Sydney Reviews

Two Hearts by Australian playwright Laura Lethlean, is a non rom com, a rom com without the com. Which is a pity. It’s a play that sorely needs some com.

Two Hearts begins with Her and Him meeting, Him slapping Her twice, his reason, “Mosquito”. After a bit of banter, she slaps him on the back, successfully squashing the insect, splat, her blood spotting his shirt. Insecticide as mating ritual. No need for Aeroguard to have a good weekend and soon they are down to their intimates.

Spoiler alert. Wearing your undies during sex is not a contraceptive. 

Told in a slew of soliloquy strewn vignettes, Two Hearts is an exploration of love, connection, and the complexities of relationships, set against the backdrop of a recurring party in a third floor Camperdown townhouse.

The evolution and devolution of the non com romance is hovered over by another character, It, who may be a pet, or an ex lover or something else altogether. The perceptive in the audience will figure it out pretty quickly.

Fledgling thesps Danette Potgieter as Her and Yarno Rohling as Him do their best with the material (a little more leavening may have made this basic bread and butter tale rise), while Lisa Hanssens’ IT, a strange, ethereal and enigmatic entity is charged with a marvellous focus – no heroics, no fireworks, just a finely calibrated focus.

Kirsty Semaan’s production boasts a strikingly simple, stripped-back set of rich wood panelled steps and a high window with a largely blue sky outlook by set designer, Jason Lowe, enhanced by supple dramatic lighting by Jasmin Borsovsky.