Lady Grey

Overview

Lady Grey is a clever play. It has a vitality and, indeed, poetry to its language that is often missing from contemporary plays. On a stage bare but for a single wooden chair, a woman (Tanya Burne) grapples with the pain associated with the end of a relationship. In the end her suffering seems almost unjustified; she cared for the man she has lost only because he loved her, held her, and had a nice blue shirt.

The point is — and it is a point Eno reiterates throughout — that this shouldn’t matter; pain and suffering are felt just as deeply by the superficial and self-centred. We should empathise because, Eno intimates, aren’t we the audience also a little so inclined? Calling on our common humanity in such a remorselessly intelligent way is refreshing and this play is funny, but Burne is almost too nice, if witty, to elicit a multifaceted response from the audience. At times she seemed startled (was this because Eno was in the audience?), rushing so quickly towards the end that the poignancy of some moments were lost (Eno likes to taunt his audience with the meaninglessness of such cliched theatre phrases as ‘in the moment’, but this only works if the actor is actually ‘in the moment’ when they deliver them).

Nonetheless, I’m intrigued by the potential of this production. Eno is an acclaimed contemporary playwright, the director, Julian Meyrick is highly accomplished and Burne more than capable. At $15 it’s ridiculously cheap for a night at the theatre, and I’m inclined to say that you won’t be disappointed.