Mothers and Fathers

Mothers certainly, but are Fathers really necessary? I don't know whether or not Joe (Joseph) Musaphia intended his play as a piece of feminist propaganda, but that is certainly the message I got after seeing the Centrepoint production, directed by Murray Lynch. At the start of the play we were shown two suburban housewives, Sally, played by Hilary Beaton and Geraldine (Faye Flegg) accustomed to the domination of their respective husbands Bernard (David McKenzie) and Terry (Tony Wahren). After nine months the tables have been turned. Geraldine insists that she is not returning to the "half-furnished shoe box" which she has shared for two years with her traffic cop husband and Sally, no longer inhibited by the knowledge that it is she who is the infertile member of their marriage, refuses to submit herself any longer to the pomposities and condescensions of her lawyer husband. Musaphia's comedy has some very funny lines indeed which Mr Lynch and his cast exploited to the full. There were some excellent additional production touches, such as the musical bar and the "braking" in Geraldine's mimed car sequence. The acting, direction and Richard Cavalante's design were all that they could be to put this play across, and raise as many laughs as possible. I felt more laughs would have come if the dialogue had been tighter and the surprise twists had followed on from one another more quickly. Nevertheless, the fact that the Centrepoint season is fully booked to the end of the run is sufficient indication that this is a play audiences enjoy. International Women's Year may have been and gone but Mr Musaphia has given us in his play a clear indication that what we can learn in this technological age is that women can get along very nicely without men, thank you, and the answer is not to advertise for a womb to rent but for a virile male with effective "birthrights". --Act