MOONLIGHT AND MAGNOLIAS @ THE MTC

Populated by two dimensional characters - a Big Brain (script doctor Ben Hecht), a Big Guy (director Fleming) and the Big Shot (producer David O Selznick) as they're referred to at one point, and the Big Shot's secretary (the little seen Marg Downey) - and mechanically directed by Bruce Beresford, Moonlight and Magnolias is a laboured and lacklustre play about the behind-the-scenes dramas involved in writing the screenplay for that classic Hollywood melodrama, Gone With The Wind.

The backstory for the play is fascinating - production on the film had ground to a halt and Selznick was losing $50,000 a day, so the movie magnate (played by Patrick Brammall) pulled in Hecht (Nicholas Hammond) and Fleming (Stephen Lovatt) to help him hammer out a workable screenplay based on Margaret Mitchell's sprawling Civil War novel.

In theory this should be the basis for a great production, but Ron Hutchinson's script never goes anywhere: it's full of sound and fury - well, arguments, anyway - but is drawn in such broad strokes that there is no room for character development or subtlety. Hecht's politics - his desire to engage with the novel's questionable stance around issues of race and class - are used as clumsy jokes; and the play's three streams - slapstick, social commentary and cinema history - rest uneasily together, never gelling together into a believeable whole.

As Selnick, Patrick Brammall was the outstanding cast member, aided by having some of the best lines, though his second act line about "sucking the collective dicks of the great unwashed" struck me as lacking any real emotion.

Ultimately I found this play rather lacking in entertainment value, though be the fair the opening night audience around me were lapping it up and laughing uproariously, leaving me to suspect once again that I'm not really the right demographic for the MTC...

Melbourne Theatre Company presents
Moonlight and Magnolias
by Ron Hutchinson

Venue: the Arts Centre, Playhouse
Dates: 21 February to 28 March
Opening night: Thursday 26 February at 8:00pm
Tickets: From $58.20 (Under 30s – $30)
Bookings: MTC Theatre Box Office 03 8688 0888 or mtc.com.au