ZEBRA!

Overview

Two men walk into a bar. One, Larry (Colin Friels), waiting to meet his daughter's fiance, is a Bostonian self-made man whose suave banker get-up is interrupted by a broken arm and accessorised with a reckless ownership over all that he touches. The other, Jimmy (Bryan Brown), is an Australian real-estate broker on the wrong side of the housing bubble who is bleeding from the head and will trade his limited-edition Hummer watch for a tab. It's 11am in the middle of a recession, so the bar is empty except for the salty barmaid, Robinson (Nadine Gardiner). There are punchlines coming aplenty.

The STC's ZEBRA! is a new play by Ross Mueller (Concussion) with a transnational perspective and very funny, rambunctious, rapid-fire dialogue. It all unfolds on one set that looks like it won't be bumped out in a hurry — a fully realised, Irish-centric New York dive bar decked with leather stools, Celtics memorabilia, mounted game and firefighters' helmets, pictures of JFK and a framed harmonica gifted by Shane MacGowan. If you were to cross the worn timber floors, you could pull a beer from the tap. It's a marvel.

Those hoping for the promised answers as to "who we are post-GFC" will likely be disappointed. It's a long time until the salesman and the entrepreneur start discussing the new financial world order, and the conversation rarely crystallises the surrounding abstract ideas. For something written with lofty intentions, ZEBRA! too often feels like it's about nothing at all. But sometimes, just sometimes, a thin thread does pull together the finest patches of verbal jousting and subtle introspection to evoke one very good question: What can be bought?

Ultimately, the tension between the characters becomes a weight of shouting that blows out on near random lines, and it grates. Friels performs every word of it, but that's within the realms of possibility for the brash American Larry (who, after all, introduces himself to new acquaintances as "a millionaire"). Brown wears the ocker, make-do Jimmy like a comfy sweater. The two have a good dynamic, but the pleasant surprise is Robinson; her character is actually the one with the most depth, and Gardiner, ribald sass covering wounded stares, makes her especially compelling.

The few leftover standing tickets will get you ringside for the rumble between these nationally prized actors, although maybe not close enough for the best bit of the play — seeing Friels' and Brown's brilliantly creviced faces at work.