While Bill Bailey and Alan Davies are raking it in with The Odd Couple over at the Assembly, the Underbelly have their own strange pairing of Malcolm and Martha in Cat Out of the Bag’s Love Sick. Unfortunately, this duo doesn’t have the gravitas of the more famous pairing and their situation is considerably more baffling.
The intrinsic problem with Love Sick is that it is never really explained properly at the beginning. You could possibly pick it up from the flyer but it is unfortunate that the opening scene doesn’t properly enlighten the audience to the couple’s dilemma. Okay, the symptoms are easily identified – she’s terminally clumsy and he has an extreme allergy to her smell – but, as it stands, this all seems a little farcical and niggles at you throughout the show.
If you can get over this, there is a lot of fun to be had, as there are golden moments of slapstick genius. They aren’t, by any means, consistent but the balance is favourable nonetheless. Also, if you care to look deeper, there are a number of messages to be taken from Love Sick but it’s unclear if they are actually intended, as they are blatantly contradictory at times.
Overall, Love Sick just seems like it hasn’t been properly thought out. There are some glorious little comic moments but these wash over, what is, a deeply sad underlying story and the final effect seems a little unbalanced.
2/5
Richard Biggs
