Review: Every Second, Darlinghurst Theatre Co

In Every Second, newly opened by Darlinghurst Theatre Co at the Eternity Playhouse, the question of the day is about love and IVF: can the former survive the challenges of the latter? Is a baby an expression of love or a thing that couples think they need to acquire?

That second idea might not be expressly in the script, but it’s certainly a question raised after watching the play. The two couples: Meg (Julia Ohannessian) and Tim (Simon Corfield), Jen (Georgina Symes) and Bill (Glenn Hazeldine), seem desperate to have a child, but we’re not sure why. Maybe there’s an assumption buried into the work, that wanting children is a thing a lot of people want to do, and so, then, do these four, but it doesn’t quite come across on stage. The characters are desperate without looking at which void, exactly, needs to be filled. At one point, Meg begs Tim to agree that, should they not have a child, they’ll get a dog. She wants to know that he’ll commit to something with her; committing to her is not enough. Suddenly, wanting children seem less like a desire for them and more like a craving for belonging focused onto the idea of a child. 

But that’s a dark reading, and it’s not where the play chooses to dwell. Instead, the play wants to look at these two couples and how the unique pressures of trying to conceive can manifest so differently. Meg and Tim and Bill and Jen are, it’s quickly established, best couple friends by default: all the rest of their friends have kids, and are understandably a little too busy to hang out.

Meg and Tim are trying to conceive naturally, with plenty of herbs and egg white lubricant and timing the deed to Meg’s cycle. Jen and Bill have decided to try IVF, staring injections and expense in the face. The pressures of the journey to parenthood soon start to weigh on all four characters. Jen struggles balancing her busy and successful work life with the medical routine required. Bill never manages to say the correct, sensitive thing. Meg clings, clings, clings to hope, all the while unaware that her obsession has caused Tim to draw way back.

Director Shannon Murphy has coaxed a relaxed, naturalistic approach from her actors. Ohannessian has the unenviable task of shading Meg with a realistic fear and even obsession without crossing into hysteria, which she achieves with a likable, easily accessible humanity, a look in her eyes that seems to ensure she stays likeable. Hazeldine’s Bill, a man possibly built for dad-jokes, gets the most laughs, and Symes is entertainingly Type-A: relentless, refreshing. Corfield successfully broods through the manner of the show, but he performs well, too – the small cast bounce against each other satisfyingly.

Set design by Andy McDonell evokes a genome, a man-made lake, a spiraling ascent and descent through life all at once. Music by Tiernan Cross is jarringly upbeat and too overbearing, but the performances are generally subtle and help to ground the piece in emotional reality, even through the occasionally clunky line or two. There’s also a sperm ballet (really) but the less said about that, the better.

It’s a small, sweet play, ultimately, tentative and exploratory. There are no real or ‘right’ answers about how to handle conception and adult friendship, only a series of decisions and an ability to cope with the fallout, and Every Second faithfully shows us two paths, different but not opposed. Perhaps you’ll find yourself in those paths; if so, the play will speak to you with greater emotional heft.