I had a crazy neighbor once in New York who used to leave his rubbish in a shared hall despite written objections slipped under his door. Then the rats came. Big, hungry, disease-ridden, NYC rats. So I did...nothing. Eventually I worked up the nerve and knocked on his door one night. That memory came flooding back as I sat down to watch Mick Barnes' up and down play of tight quarters - Unit 46 .Tim (Leof Kingsford Smith) live upstairs in unit 46, Diane (Lucy Miller) is down in 36. Why does she thinks she is? wonders outraged Tim over a note about the rubbish. They don't know each other's names but they know when the other flushes the toilet, snores There he goes again like a buzzsaw says Diane, or puts on the kettle. At 7:30PM, Tim does his vacuuming, notes Diane. She tries to meditate, he tries to meditate. Have some respect for your neighbours Diane shouts out into the ceiling above her. They both clearly think the other is crazy.This is your basic shared-building psychosis. In between their rantings about a person they cannot name, their past failures erupt to the surface pointing their ire back at someone they can name themselves. Both have engaged in career ending public blunders. After alienating those who would have loved and stayed, they are now sequestered in a prison of their own making, sad and lonely. Tim ponders his fantasy partner Who is it going to be tonight? Julia Roberts, Demi Moore? . Will somebody please fuck me? cries Diane, getting straight to the point.The hollow space between walls of their apartments seems to become a dark receptacle of muffled malice. The bleating, the hand wringing and rancour passes into and is absorbed by wires, pipes, conduits and insulation forming a cankerous cocoon around each intensifying their solitude, their loneliness. There's notes slipped under doors. There's banging on ceilings and floors. The noise! Putting the garbage out by the wrong chute! Accusations, eavesdropping, spiraling obsession with that irritating neighbour. Oh, they're going to take action. They're finally going to do something about it. But will that knock on the door ever come?The performance is staged a series of alternating monologues. Tim and Diane never speak to each other directly. Their apartments are staged as one, which very effectively turns into Tim's or Diane's as each take launches the next muddled delusional rant, thanks to Mr. Smith and Ms. Miller's snap presence. The question holding this play together is : when will Tim and Diane meet and sort out their issues. Then as the play progresses and you realize they have so much in common, the question turns into a strong desire for them to be together and you wonder; when will they get together?Unit 46 is billed as a comic home invasion and while there is humour, there are few laughs. Some of the topics breached, such as spirituality, sanity, office politics and marriage often meander beyond the point to dreary banality. On several occasions both Tim and Diane refer to their apartments as some kind of madhouse, for example. The writer belabours individual ideas such as the goddess piece as if we weren't listening closely enough resulting in that exact affect. These cranky characters are not the kind of people you'd like to have around. They'd bore anyone to death with their neurotic problems. However both Mr. Smith and Ms. Miller ably create characters who manage to find a way into our hearts. Unit 46 is on tour from Australia and it seems at times that both actors slip into a reflexive interpretation of the characters that result in a single note performance, which they could so easily avoid with deft attention from director Andrew Doyle.However, playwright Mick Barnes achieves what he sets out to do; to show the increasing isolation of dense city living while highlighting the common experience of all caught in the purgatory of a concrete boite noir. I'm strong, independent and...alone says Diane to herself. The play may have the effect of bringing you closer to your neighbours but perhaps also, the opposite. We assume to act in a responsible and community minded way but adverse situations makes meals out of manners. The microscope on Tim and Diane shows us why. The final action of both characters in the play (which I can't tell you) animates the theme and makes a clear, strong dramatic point about close living. As I left the theatre, I recalled what happened when I knocked on my neighbour's door that evening. He opened the door and I shouted loudly Your rubbish!, like a madman. I pointed to the bag on the floor and with a flying kick, lobbed it right into his apartment. He stared at me incredulously and just I turned and walked away. I reflected later that my response was as odd as his careless neglect of the rubbish was. This is what Unit 46 tells us. If you think that neighbour is crazy, remember you are someone's neighbour too.
