Quartet

In the first opening night of Queensland Theatre Company's 2016 season, the distressing process of ageing is given a charmingly comedic edge in Ronald Harwood's Quartet.

Amid recliner wars, sexy thoughts (senior-style), and socks and sandal combos, there's also a great deal of genuine reflection on growing old from the perspective of four retired opera singers who philosophise, question, sulk and challenge each other through the preparation of performing the quartet from Verdi's Rigoletto. From an almost too sparse opening half-stage set within the gardens of a retirement home for musicians, Trevor Stuart immediately makes his mark as dirty-old-man-with-a-heart-of-gold Wilf. His cringe-worthy innuendo directed at Christine Amor's delightfully dotty Cissy runs close to being too much, though as he literally shrinks with every passing line, he wonderfully morphs into an everyday grandpa engulfed in the folds of an armchair. The set-up is lengthy, though the laughs — and even groans at Kate Wilson's portrayal of self-obsessed soprano Jean — come often. Moving to the music room for the second half, the pace is much faster and the laughs more deserved due greatly to well-used props and the glue of Andrew McFarlane's gentlemanly Reggie. With harmony among the quartet restored in more ways than one, a most triumphant finale sends the theatre crowd off joyfully, with some serious thinking to do about how to age gracefully.