The Odd Couple (Female Version)
Hong Kong Players McAulay Studio, Hong Kong Arts Centre Mar 9 to 13, 7.30pm
The Hong Kong Players' latest offering is Neil Simon's adaptation of his own play The Odd Couple. It was first staged in 1965 and went on to become a hit movie three years later, starring Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon. The award-winning playwright was said to be not totally happy with the original script and, in 1985, came up with the female version.
Paul Sheehan, who directs the Players production, says he has always been a fan of the 1968 movie and first picked up the script of the female version when he was at university.
'I wasn't aware there was this version and I thought it was probably going to be sub-par to the male one but when I read it, I thought it was better,' he says. 'Essentially, the script is almost verbatim compared to the original. [Simon] obviously changed their gender-related dialogue and so on ... but it's very interesting how he wrote something from a male's perspective and was so spot on and was able to revamp it in such a way that works.'
The plot revolves around two friends who become highly mismatched roommates after their respective marriages break down. One is neat and uptight, the other more easygoing but slovenly. In the original play the duo were male, and brought together by their weekly poker games with the lads.
In the female version, the drama is set in 1980s New York and the girls play Trivial Pursuit.
Liz Merendino (above right) plays Olive, a successful TV broadcaster with a career to envy but a personal life that is a mess. Janice Jensen (left) is proud housewife and mother Florence whose orderly life falls to pieces when her cowboy-wannabe husband tells her he wants out of their marriage.
Sheehan says both actresses are playing roles that are the opposite of their real-life personalities.
'And I did that on purpose,' he says. 'It'd have been really easy to put them in what they are most familiar with. But why do it then? There should always be some element of challenge for a performer and they've risen to the challenge really well. And there is a good chemistry between them.'
2 Harbour Road, Wan Chai, $240 Urbtix. Inquiries: 9852 2668
