“The play is full of real emotion, everyday extraordinary emotion.“
Suzanne Mackay
4 Stars
KXT on Broadway
Sydney
15 – 30 November 2024
Michael is sick, he’s young but is deteriorating fast until his wife Liz answers a late night call. There’s a heart for him. People Will Think You Don’t Love Me starts with Micheal at the piano and quickly cuts to Liz, Michael and Tommasina (aka Tommy) in an awkward first meeting. Surrounded by boxes, Tommy is defensive and vulnerable, pain and rage practically seeping from her pores as she tries to be polite and placate the tone deaf Liz and earnest Michael. They’ve been warned, told of the dangers of meeting a donors family – the ultimate game of life and death ‘your loss, our gain’ – but Liz can only see her own desire for gratitude, to have it understood by everyone else that she is grateful, to be seen as grateful. She pushes for the meeting, infuriatingly blind to the selfishness of her so-called indebtedness, the ultimate placater, Michael tries to keep the peace and they leave telling themselves they’ve done their duty and that’s that.
At the centre of this play are the relationships, first between the two, then between all three characters, and how they are affected by a single event. Despite the uncomfortable initial meeting, Michael feels drawn to Tommy, he drops in on her and makes excuses to help her out and while the relationships are very clear and real, it’s less clear what’s driving Michael’s choices. The premise is that his new heart is changing him at a cellular level, that who he is, is fundamentally different and he becomes drawn to Tommy because of who his heart used to be. However, apart from this cellular effect, it’s hard to understand how Michael feels. It doesn’t seem like just a misguided attraction or that Michael has feelings for Tommy or that he’s even cognisant of what he’s doing, he seems to be reacting rather than reflecting – a very male pattern of behaviour.
The performances are immensely believable Michael (Tom Matthews) and Liz (Grace Naoum) have a relationship forged by crisis, they are strong because they had no other choice, but are also only able to see things from their own perspectives. Ruby Maishman is utterly compelling as Tommy, wracked with guilt over losing somebody she loved but which love came mixed with ambivalence. The play is full of real emotion, everyday extraordinary emotion. It could perhaps do with a little more insight into individual characters, separate from the relationships they inhabit and close some of the transitions as it progresses to allow us to understand the urgency of the situation. These are however small enhancements and may well happen as the play continues its run.
The play ends as it began, with Michael at the piano and the audience left to wonder whose heart is leading him and where.
Suzanne Mackay, Theatre Now
Photo Credit: Phil Erbacher
