Next Fall review: Awkward vigil puts beliefs and sex on trial

Next fall
Seymour Centre, October 29. Until November 19
★★½

US writer Geoffrey Nauffts' Tony-nominated Next Fall is an elegantly formulaic play, equal parts death-watch drama and social comedy. At its centre is a gay couple, Adam and Luke.

Adam (played by Darrin Redgate) is a 40-something atheist, hypochondriac Jew, loquacious, insecure and mired in a mid-life career crisis. A temporary Christmas job working in a friend's scented candle emporium has somehow morphed into a six-year career in gift retail.

Luke (Alex Ewan) is in his mid-20s, an aspiring actor. He's also a bible belt Southerner, born again, believes in the Rapture and prays for forgiveness after sex. He has yet to come out to his parents.

So far, so sitcom. But these scenes are the flashback past of Next Fall. There is much less to chuckle over in the present, which is set in a hospital waiting room. Luke is in a coma after being struck by an out-of-control taxi. While the surgeons work to save him, Adam, Luke's parents Butch and Arlene, Adam's friend Holly and Luke's former lover Brandon maintain an uncomfortable vigil.

Next Fall is a warm-hearted, even-handed study of US convictions regarding religion and sexuality. Its characters are quick to damn each other but Nauffts maintains a level of sympathy for all. Like Adam, we find Luke charming enough to overlook his assertion that it is easier for born-again murderers to reach heaven than it is for god-loving homosexuals. Even the homophobic Butch is afforded a measure of respect for his conservative values. Seems you can't choose what you believe in any more than who you fall in love with.

Performed in the Reginald Theatre, director Andy Leonard's production is well-measured and solidly acted, if a bit stilted and short on the kind of comic immediacy that draws in an audience. Designer Irma Calabrese's split-screen set takes care of the time shifts in the play but ensures that 50 per cent of the stage is dormant at any one time.

Redgate doesn't overplay Adam's flagrant quirks and there's easy chemistry between the lovers. Cormac Costello's Butch grows substantially after an indecisive start and Mary Anne Halpin has some good scenes as Arlene, a partly reformed "loose cannon".

Mark Dessaix's embittered Brandon, the least talkative of the characters on stage, is very sharply drawn. Victoria Greiner contributes some nice moments as Adam's confidante Holly.

Next Fall so obviously wants to provoke laughter and tears. As this production matures and its performers gain confidence, it may well get there.