Our play for March was “The Odd Couple (female version)” by Neil Simon. We have covered a number of Neil Simon plays over the years and find them great to read in our class.
Summary
We have Florence Unger and Olive Madison in the female version of Neil Simon’s hilarious comic classic, “The Odd Couple”. Instead of the poker party that begins the original version, Olive has the girls over for the weekly evening of Trivial Pursuit. The guys are replaced by the girls, and the Pidgeon sisters are replaced by the Costazuela brothers, but the hilarity remains the same.
As the game of Trivial Pursuit continues, Florence arrives, fresh from being dumped by her husband. Fearful that the neurotic Florence might attempt suicide, Olive invites her to move in as her roommate. However, Olive and Florence have VERY different personalities. Where Olive is messy, untidy, and unconcerned about the state of her apartment, Florence is obsessively clean, tidy, and obsessed with hygiene. Olive’s easy-going outlook on life soon clashes with Florence’s highly-strung neurotic tendencies, testing their friendship to the limit. When Olive organizes a double date with the Costazuela brothers, their differences come to a head and sparks fly.
The show focuses on the two women as they find their place in the world and workforce in 1980's New York City, while simultaneously navigating difficult divorces. The themes of this show highlight female friendships, feminism, and the representation of female sexuality at that point in time.
The characterisation for Florence and Olive was good, with not a lot of focus on the other four women. All were very much of the time – the 1980s. There were a number of clever one liners. The scene with the Costazuela brothers was extremely clever as it played on language differences and pronunciations.
A fun play, but the question remains whether it worked better with the men of the original play.
Our play for April is “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time” by Simon Stephens.
Joy Shirley
Summary
We have Florence Unger and Olive Madison in the female version of Neil Simon’s hilarious comic classic, “The Odd Couple”. Instead of the poker party that begins the original version, Olive has the girls over for the weekly evening of Trivial Pursuit. The guys are replaced by the girls, and the Pidgeon sisters are replaced by the Costazuela brothers, but the hilarity remains the same.
As the game of Trivial Pursuit continues, Florence arrives, fresh from being dumped by her husband. Fearful that the neurotic Florence might attempt suicide, Olive invites her to move in as her roommate. However, Olive and Florence have VERY different personalities. Where Olive is messy, untidy, and unconcerned about the state of her apartment, Florence is obsessively clean, tidy, and obsessed with hygiene. Olive’s easy-going outlook on life soon clashes with Florence’s highly-strung neurotic tendencies, testing their friendship to the limit. When Olive organizes a double date with the Costazuela brothers, their differences come to a head and sparks fly.
The show focuses on the two women as they find their place in the world and workforce in 1980's New York City, while simultaneously navigating difficult divorces. The themes of this show highlight female friendships, feminism, and the representation of female sexuality at that point in time.
The characterisation for Florence and Olive was good, with not a lot of focus on the other four women. All were very much of the time – the 1980s. There were a number of clever one liners. The scene with the Costazuela brothers was extremely clever as it played on language differences and pronunciations.
A fun play, but the question remains whether it worked better with the men of the original play.
Our play for April is “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time” by Simon Stephens.
Joy Shirley
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