Text & Photos
N CUNNINGHAM-WILLIAMS

All hell breaks loose when Justine (Nadia Khan) is no longer the perfect mate for Bill (Clive Duncan) and Leon (Munair Zacca) looks on helpless.

Despite resolutions to improve ourselves with plastic surgery, motivational tapes and self help books that speak to finding holistic happiness, we all have to ask the question: is there really such a thing as perfection?  And if it exists, do we truly want it and can we handle it?

These and lot more questions are explored in Pablo Hoilett’s new play ‘The Love List’, which opened just before the New Year at The Theatre Place.

The storyline surrounds two old friends Bill and Leon.  Bill a boring statistician was celebrating his big 50th birthday with his only friend Leon, a womanizing writer who thought to ‘help’ his friend Bill by finding his buddy a mate with the assistance of a ‘reader woman’

To find the perfect match, they had to complete a list with ten qualities Bill would desire in an ideal mate.  After much haggling the list was finally completed and Leon promised to take it to the reader woman post haste.

However Bill’s world completely turned upside down as the woman of his dreams materialised shortly afterwards seemingly with all the qualities and assets he wanted.  While this at first brought him joy, it quickly became bizarre, as some of the qualities turned out not to be so perfect in the long run and even worse, it was revealed that Leon never did take the list to the ‘reader woman’!

Intellect to unravel

Starring Munair Zacca as Leon, Clive Duncan as Bill and Nadia Khan as Justine, ‘Love List’ is one that requires some amount of intellect to unravel and though ideal for a mature audience, this Norm Foster penned script is miles away from buffoonery, as it actually invites theatre goers to contemplate what they would do if faced with such a scenario.

To try and conceive what constitutes a perfect mate would lead to hailstorm of debate, as the qualities they would bring to the table would be subject to the interpretation of the person seeking such a mate.  The play demonstrated that beautifully, as while Bill thought highly of a woman with a sense of humour who was unpredictable, to Leon ‘unpredictable’ meant ‘psychotic’ and he much prefers a woman who sings around the house and has “big boobs”.

The acting is first rate as the actors feed off each other’s energy and though a few times the actors stumbled on their lines this could easily be chocked up to first week jitters.

Special kudos to Nadia Khan, as this Trinidadian handled her character who had to display such bipolar behaviour throughout the course of the play with ease.

All in all ‘Love List’ was a barrel of laughs.