THEATRE: 3 DECEMBER 2017 By GERALDINE WORTHINGTON

Virgins and Cowboys, by Morgan Rose | Directed by Dave Sleswick

Motherboard Productions & Griffin Independent (www.griffintheatre.com.au) | The Stables, Darlinghurst, Sydney | Until 16 December

As we enter the theatre three young men are sitting on stage, viewing the audience as they settle down for the show. Their body language and their viewing of the panorama in front of them, suggests Hollywood cowboys surveying the vista.

However, we soon find out they are Sam (Kieran Law), Dale (George Lingard), and Kieran (James Deeth) and as they converse we rapidly realise that these are hipsters and the depth of their conversation revolves around the news that Sam has met two women on-line, both of whom are virgins!

Sam is a 23-year-old university dropout, now working at Subway as a sandwich artist, and the two virgins are Steph (Katrina Cornwall), young and obsessive, and Lane (Penny Harpham), older and less easily impressed.

As these relationships play out, we watch the way that affairs are now formed and maintained in the modern cyber world — still, at times initially, uncomfortable and stilted.

The cyber medium is represented on stage by a rapid stripping away of Yvette Turnbull’s modest design. We are left with a blank stage on which the actors and audience play a ball game and where the energy is transferred and words are no longer important.

Lisa Mimbus’ lighting design and Liam Barton’s sound design effectively heighten the emotional landscape and forward the mood and pace.

Courtesy of the Romanticism movement and Hollywood, love is often viewed in transcendent terms, but this show focuses on self-obsessive, self-absorbed characters and it is only when they interact that their insecurities become evident. The performances are all strong and energetic and cleverly capture the mundane aspects of daily circumstances.

Through all the comedy and drama, there is still the romantic ambition, the search for love amid the passion of desire and the drive of curiosity, but it is all displayed in a different medium.

This show may alienate some because of style/subject but I certainly think it is worth a look.

Images: Ashely de Prazer.