The Holiday is a dialogue between two guys sitting around a kiddie pool. It’s not a drama, a comedy, or anything else: it’s plain dialogue. It’s more of an art installation than theatre.
Paul Lum and Patrick Mofatt chat comfortably, intimately, about all the minutae that they see around them: the people on trains they see, women, annoying habits of their friends. It’s funny, cute, and you find yourself thinking that you are, or know someone like the folks they’re talking about.
So whats the overall theme? Well, the guys are in search of spirituality: they talk about trying various different sources of growth, by looking in the catholic church, buddhist monastaries, and reading hindu texts. They don’t realise that the spirituality of the mundane that they talk about the whole time: the only thing they find meaning from are the small things they see that put them in brief intimate connections with people around them. Or perhaps, they’re just on a holiday, reflecting a little on their lives.
If you’re into theatre without plot, and want to have a bit of a massage of the brain that leaves you enervated and with a slight smile for a couple of hours, you should go and see The Holiday. If you’re like me and you like plots, characters, conflict, or even an intermission, then you probably want to see something else.
Robert Schönberger
robert strudel schonberger dot org
