Review: How to Stay Married Without Exploding! at the Explosives Factory
Review by Greg Gorton
There’s a little joy to be found in knowing a play called How to Stay Married Without Exploding! is being performed at the old St Kilda explosives factory, but there is much more joy to be found in knowing just how funny this show is.
How to Stay Married has an uncomplicated but unique premise. We are part of a live studio audience in the mid-1950s, watching a show that stars an ex-US infantryman who is still standing on the landmine he trod on a decade ago. This popular hit show is all about explaining how, in such unusual circumstances, the man and his wife have such a happy marriage. It is the 400th episode, the cameras are rolling, but something has gone wrong.
This is an incredibly designed show and you are dragged into the world of the production before you have ever sat down. Francis Molloy (written and played by Matthew J. Young) introduces himself to you as he warms up with tongue twisters while two “behind the scenes” characters check lights, give him a final glass of water, and confirm that both static cameras are working. These cameras ARE working, providing a live feed (with clever delay) to an old television, which sits on an even older radio, making up two of the four pieces of set dressing. This working television lets us see what the at-home audience does, and offers subtle story-telling clues with the “producer” and “camera operator” decisions. It is a frankly brilliant use of technology in story-telling, and hopefully inspiring to other creatives.
The rest of the set is a small chest of draws, an overturned chair in the back, and a metal disc, sitting on a patch of grass. On that disc, the landmine, stands Francis, for the entirety of the play.
Young and Marshall Brown have written a performance that relies on convincing us of the unusual world we are placed in, finding empathy with Francis Molloy, and then having a stake in what will happen to him. This first part, the creation of the world, has been done to perfection. The show has that strange “nostalgia for a fake past” aesthetic you can find in “Mad Men” or “Fallout”, and Jake Battle must take so much praise for not only the impressive set design but also for the costume of Molloy, which balances nicely the showmanship of a TV personality with the reality of a man who lives on a mine. Young fully melds into the character of the charlatan (as all TV men are), with quick batter, quippy one-liners, and the ability to make the corniest of jokes seem more sincere. Most importantly, with “segments” that involved pretty involved audience participation, Young has a firm grasp of improvisation, and draws out enthusiasm from the most reticent of crowds.
While the “TV persona” of Molloy is perfect, less can be said about that more subtle characterisation, of a man with struggles he tries to keep away from audiences. This is a production with no surprises in the turns it takes, but could do more to offer less explicit glimpses into them early on. However, finding yourself caring for what happens to Molloy is easy to do, and the resolution of this piece is something that, while unsurprising, is poignant nevertheless.
How to Stay Married Without Exploding! is a definite winner for those who like “The Dick Van Dyke Show”, “Fallout”, or late night television hosts in general. It’s got some mildly raunchy moments to make your grandma giggle, and a final moment that does make you wonder about the decisions that get us to where we are.
