All in the family

TRUE LOVE LIES, Royal Exchange, Manchester

Hang on, what’s all this? Brad Fraser, enfant terrible of Canadian drama, keen on stage nudity, homosexual love, snakes and serial killers, writing about a mom, pop-and-two-kids nuclear family?

There’s something terribly wrong here...

Actually there is something terribly wrong, and in the first few minutes of “True Love Lies”, the latest slice of Fraser’s cool (in a fashion sense) brilliance and an Exchange world premiere, we find that dad’s former boy friend is back in town, and revelations are standing in the wings, fighting to be first centre stage.

And thus is the balance of the world restored.

There is a change in mood in this latest Fraser black comedy: maybe he’s getting older and wiser (which seems unlikely); perhaps director Braham Murray, his Manchester champion, is getting a little slower and more reflective.

Whichever it, “True Love Lies” does more with less: Fraser’s bon mots are more bon, his one-liners slightly less in evidence but sharper.

And there are a mere five characters — nuclear family Kane (John Kirk), Carolyn (Teresa Banham) and young-adult children Madison and Royce (the equally superb Amy Beth Hayes and Oliver Gomm) and Kane’s ex, David (the wonderfully languid Jonny Phillips).

After the revelation — which is news both to Madison, a 20-year-old, would-be slut, but smart; and Royce, a sad, depressed high school student on the verge of a breakdown — the apparently perfect marriage starts to fall apart.

Does he still harbour feelings for successful restaurateur David?

Did he marry Carolyn on the rebound? Are his children really so blase about it?

It is the way Fraser pulls the marriage apart thereafter, dissecting with a scalpel of wit, visiting hysterically bad choices and decisions on the individuals, that stands the play apart.

These and many more short, sharp scenes keep things unfailingly gripping and watchable; deep, dark, light and hilarious all at once.

Imagine Noel Coward and Joe Orton writing together and you’ll be somewhere near the experience.

See it soon, whatever your state of sexual confusion...