Rarely have I seen an audience spill out of a theatre foyer looking so visibly rattled as the crowd emerging from the premiere of the play, Game. Set. Match. at Melbourne’s Malthouse Theatre. They appeared to be arguing with it — and perhaps with themselves — morally repositioning like tennis players after a hard-fought loss.
For as an off-stage voice mischievously announces right at the start — while the audience is absorbing the tennis-themed set and despite the teasingly playful title — Game. Set. Match. is not really about tennis at all.
As First Nations writer and lead actress Megan Wilding mischievously suggests, this is “a rom-com… until it isn’t.” The sharp comic jabs landed with immaculate timing and drew hearty audience laughter during the opening act — or opening game, in this case. But that laughter gradually curdled.
“ Game. Set. Match. is not really about tennis at all.”
