Our not so learned friends: Genevieve Hegney and Catherine Moore. Photo: Prudence Upton
Part pure comedy, part satire and always entertaining, Genevieve Hegney and Catherine Moore are back, as unqualified as they were before but still striving to work the system, as well as work around it.
Those who saw the first Unqualified, which premiered at the Ensemble in 2018, will recall that sharp-tongued Joanne Truebody (Hegney) and ever-optimistic Felicity Bacon (Moore) met in disastrously hilarious circumstances at Centrelink. The opening scenes of this new play find them back there, still stymied by unsympathetic and unresponsive Centrelink staff (also played by Hegney and Moore). So far, so funny. And it gets better.
Joanne is still struggling to survive the debt left her by her unlamented ex-husband; Felicity is still struggling for Joanne’s friendship. Necessity makes them work together. With no resources to find or fund the staff their temp agency pretends to have, the pair do the work themselves. Unqualified, as they are.
Hence we find them as two doulas, in blue hospital smocks, professing to help a mother give birth (neither Joanne nor Felicity have had children); as wedding planners (neither has a successful marriage); wellbeing advisers at retreat called Dancing With Ghosts; as a pair of poorly prepared paralegals; art ‘experts’ conducting tours of galleries; long-distance truck drivers… you get the picture.
The script, penned by Moore and Hegney, is fast and topical. Many one-liners are scathingly pertinent to today’s news and trends, others broader. There is an underlying narrative about friendship, loneliness and family – and the definition of family, relevant to the uneasy friendship between Joanne and Felicity. Again, pertinent in an age of blended families, childless families, gay families and all others bound together by love, not blood.
But mainly Unqualified 2: Still Unqualified, directed by Janine Watson, is a hoot. Among many scenes: a séance goes wrong (helped somewhat by technical difficulties on opening night), Joanne makes a very persuasive case when trying to get her ‘client’ off a parking fine in Randwick; and a road trip to deliver unspecified goods to Queensland is a complete debacle, in more ways than one.
There is much more that could be said, but see for yourselves. Hegney and Moore’s comic timing is spot on and it’s 90 minutes of fun, complete with a singing finale.
An unqualified success.
Unqualified 2: Still Unqualified runs at the Ensemble Theatre, Kirribilli until 4 June
Tickets from: $43-$83; www.ensemble.com
