The Smallest Hour

Overview

Turning 30 isn't so much a birthday as it is the crossing of a threshold. With the clear-cut idealism of your 18-year-old self nowhere to be found and nothing but the joyful wreckage of your 20s to show for three decades on the planet, the occasion can seem more like a mugging by Father Time than a celebration of maturation.

So it is with the characters in Griffin Theatre's last play for 2018. Written and performed by Susie Youssef and Phil Spencer, The Smallest Hour is a romantic comedy about two people quietly mortified by the lives they lead. Shelly's running the quiz for a hen's night and Chris is a stripper who's ashamed of his body. When they reconnect many, many years after high school, shared disappointments and missed opportunities pile together to create another chance for both of them. Velcro pants also come into it at some point — we're not quite sure, either.

Griffin Theatre's going out on a heartwarmer and Youssef and Spencer are just the performers for this oddball love story. See it before 2019 sneaks round and reminds you that you're another year closer to (or further from) the big 3-0.

The Smallest Hour will run nightly (except Sundays) from Wednesday, December 5 to Saturday, December 15. All tickets cost $35 per person, plus there'll be $20 Monday rush tickets (available from noon for that evening's performance).