Ross and Rachel, but not as you know them

Ross and Rachel, performed solo by Jessica Stanley, depicts the life of a married couple, whose relationship is not what it once was. Unengaged, bored and a little deluded, the couple navigate through the challenges that come when you reach that point in life when you’ve been with someone for 20 years, and no longer feel like an individual.

It shows us both sides of the coin. The one who couldn’t bare to live without the other, who feels sick when they’re not around and can’t function without them. And the other, who longs to be their own person once again, to not be attached to someone else all of the time, to have their own identity outside the relationship and to know what it’s like to be loved by someone else. The show looks at how each half would react if they were faced with being alone. Distraught? Relieved? Scared? Fine?

Performing two characters at once is no small feat and Jessica Stanley is to be commended for her engaging performance and seamless transition from one to the other, without the use of gimmicky accents or costume to do so.

If the performance were to be based on ‘Ross and Angela’, or ‘Rachel and Matt’, or any couple that we, the audience had never had the pleasure of meeting, I’d consider it an engaging, well-performed, well-written piece of theatre.

The catch, however, is that the show is meant to be based on the characters Ross and Rachel, picking up on their lives ten years after the hit TV show Friends ended. If you know and love the TV show (like many of us do), if you know the characters inside out and have watched every episode a hundred times over (like many of us have), you may (like me) feel frustrated at the portrayal of these two characters, even if they have aged ten years.

You may sit in your chair thinking: “Rachel never would have said that” or “Ross wasn’t like that”. While the characters are meant to be an extension of the characters we know and love, it feels as if they’ve been extended so far that the performance is not true to who Ross and Rachel were, or even could be.

The problem is the show’s title and the inference it makes. Audiences are drawn to the show for the Friends factor. During quick and infrequent Friends references, I could see the audience light up at the glimmer of familiarity. Whether it be a simple ‘I’m fine’, or ‘we were on a …’, it felt like the audience was getting what they came for, before the whole plot plunged into a dark and morbid storyline which no one ever hoped to see for our beloved Ross and Rachel.

Friends fans will leave challenged by the narrative – just as art should challenge us – but also disappointed at not only the outcome of Ross and Rachel’s story, but also the portrayal of their characters.  

In short, if you love Friends, approach with caution.

If you don’t know Friends, or have watched very little of it, the performance is a bold, fast-paced emotional rollercoaster and well worth seeing.

Ross and Rachel 
Theatre Works, 14 Acland Street, St Kilda
Melbourne Fringe Festival 2018
melbournefringe.com.au/event/ross-rachel