Sweet Nothings – pantsguys Productions and Geraldine Timmins

Overview

The first act of Sweet Nothings is wildly, wonderfully misleading. Two handsome men and women drink and flirt while surrounded by great wealth and no worries. It's almost Gossip Girl-esque, though the characters inspire even less of your empathy.

That all changes with act two, where aristocratic bachelor pad owner Fritz (Graeme McRae) and goodtime guy Theo (Owen Little) fade into the background and we're hurtled into the middle-class suburbs to spend some quiet time with Christine (Matilda Ridgeway). The near-faceless, dismissible young woman from the previous night's gathering is given a life and personality, and a rather great one at that.

It becomes a moving, at times cringe-inducing, at times heartbreaking play to watch, as we see her deeply, uninhibitedly in love with Fritz, despite his often noncommittal behaviour and despite the remonstrations of her nosy downstairs neighbour Katharina (played with gorgeous wile by Lucy Miller). This is puppy love as we rarely see it portrayed — generously, as something special and emboldening.

What she can't know, though we've known all along, is that Fritz's deepest love is reserved for another man's wife, a society woman with whom he's had a drawn-out affair that's just been exposed. He and Theo don't see the girls as their equals, though Fritz has affection for and something like a longing to love Christine back. It's, you know — complicated. Grounded, pleasure-seeking Mitzi (Clementine Mills) can enjoy it for what it is; Christine cannot.

Sweet Nothings is an adaptation by Scottish playwright David Harrower (Blackbird) of the late 19th-century Liebelei by Austrian Arthur Schnitzler (Leibelei is alternately translated as Flirtation and The Reckoning, which is quite a perfect binary). Schnitzler's frank portrayals of sexuality were shocking for the time, while his perceptiveness as to human psychology still surprises (Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut is also based off one of his works). Here, he gets behind the usual moralising that would be applied to both the men and women and looks for something truer.

It's mounted at Sydney's ATYP Studio with fair success by the reliable pantsguys (Punk Rock) and Geraldine Timmins and directed by John Kachoyan, following its debut at London's Old Vic in 2010. The contemporary setting becomes a bit of a stumbling block when duels and social idiosyncrasies suddenly become hugely important to the plot, but generally the whims and dilemmas of these characters are enduring. Sophie Fletcher's set is lushly textured and makes great use of the space.

However, it's Ridgeway's performance that makes the show. Her sweet mannerisms render Christine irresistible when she could so easily have been annoying, and later flashes of stoicism and anger are impeccably handled. Her total delightfulness makes Sweet Nothings' conclusion all the more painful. 'Heart-wrenching Everything' would be the better title.