Type – Bittersweet, Comedy of Manners
If you liked – Noël Coward’s Private Lives, Michael Frayn’s Noises Off
Stage Kiss: Intimate storytelling with magic in abundance
There is a particular kind of magic that small theatres do better than the bigger main stage venues. They have a feeling of intimacy, that the story unfolding on stage is happening for you. The New Theatre’s production of Sarah Ruhl‘s Stage Kiss has that magic in abundance.
Ruhl’s 2011 play is, on its surface, a comedy about two ex-lovers, credited simply as She and He, who are cast opposite each other in a romantic stage production only to find their old feelings inconveniently rekindled. Alice Livingston’s direction reveals further layers, with a tender and funny meditation on whether we ever truly know which of our emotions are genuine and which are unwitting performances we have acted out for so long; we can’t tell the difference.
The production lives or dies on the central pair, and Emma Delle-Vedove and Jason Spindlow are quite wonderful together. They create a palpable chemistry from the moment they are awkwardly reunited on stage. The scenes within scenes and the play-within-the-play sequences that Ruhl constructs with gleeful wit are handled pretty well, although we sometimes are not quite sure which layer of reality we are in.
The supporting cast rise admirably to Ruhl’s demands, with warmth and bittersweet poignancy. This is a play for theatre people, and there are plenty of in-jokes and tropes to have everyone chuckling ruefully. In a community theatre, context requires no great leap of imagination and we’re all the better for it. The young director and actor sitting next to me looked like they were thoroughly enjoying it!
Livingstone resists the temptation to overload the comedy and allows the play’s stranger, more philosophical currents to surface. The pacing can lag at times, and hopefully they’ll pick this up. Merle Leuschner’s set design is a bare stage that transforms through Holly Nesbit’s lighting and suggestion rather than elaborate scenery, and is an elegant and practical choice that suits both the budget and the theme. When the play asks us to question what is real, the artifice is part of the deal.
Is Stage Kiss Worth Seeing in Sydney?
Stage Kiss could have been merely clever. In this production it is clever, and funny, and surprisingly moving. It’s perfectly suited to New Theatre, and the crew deliver a hugely capable and enjoyable production.
Tickets and Practical Info for Stage Kiss in Sydney 🎟️
Stage Kiss
By Sarah Ruhl
Directed by Alice Livingstone
New Theatre, Newtown
Until 11 April 2026.
Tickets: https://newtheatre.org.au/stage-kiss/
CREATIVE TEAM
Director/Sound Designer Alice Livingstone
Set Designer Merle Leuschner
Costume Designer Bianca De Nicola
Lighting Designer Holly Nesbitt
CAST
Emma Delle-Vedove, Nicola Denton, Victoria Fowler, Lynden Jones, Nicholas Papademetriou, Frank Shanahan, Jason Spindlow
