PROBE touts itself as a “self-aware” play that explores the “grey areas of Hollywood’s abuse of power” through “provoking questions around gender imbalances, retribution, and the morality of ‘good men’”. While there are crucial questions raised around gender and morality in the film industry, as a whole, it falls short of reaching those answers.
Set during the 2021 COVID-19 lockdown and situated in a furnished hotel room — one of the nicer looking ones with a kitchen bar, a small dinner table and an expensive looking couch — PROBE, penned by Becca Hurd and directed by Rachel Chant, is a two-hander centring around Griffin Thornsby (Ryan Panizza), a hotshot Hollywood actor, and Holly (Ziggy Resnick), who’s in to COVID-test him. The play unfolds slowly, with the audience catching on quickly that there’s a lot going on that isn’t being said.
We eventually find out that Griffin has been cancelled by a blog post accusing him of sexual misconduct, with him acquiescing that the accusations are true, but maintaining throughout the play that he is “a good guy”. Following a series of awkward short and stilted conversations between Griffin and Holly, we also learn that Holly is an aspiring writer and director, and one of Griffin’s fans who has idolised his writing for years.
There isn’t much space to hide in two-handers such as this, and Panizza and Resnick are well-suited to their roles, conveying their characters with a believable level of conviction. Panizza’s physicality especially aids him well, with well-positioned body language making clear that Griffin is almost always in control and holds the power between the two characters.
Resnick builds up Holly’s character well, providing deadpan delivery and hitting emotional beats as needed. Resnick also has to be particularly commended for some of the scenes that are more physically intense and psychologically difficult to watch at the production’s end that teeter on the edge of body horror.
While Hurd’s script does provide some humorous moments, oftentimes the dialogue feels stilted, sounding like an argument on Twitter, rather than a real conversation. The ending, too, felt more like a ‘gotcha’ moment. Though it referenced a previous conversation between the two leads about writing “complex women” who are “not strong female leads”, and holding “good men” to account for their “mistakes” to ensure the bad ones get caught out too, the intended metatheatrical effect did not land in a way that structurally worked with the play’s storytelling.
PROBE’s production, however, was very well conceived, working cohesively to blend into the story. Emma Van Veen’s lighting built palpable tension alongside Alexander Lee-Rekers’ minimalist sound design, and the design of the set (Paris Bell) aided the claustrophobic feeling that surrounded the setting.
What was most interesting about PROBE, and where it delivered most, was its questioning of parasocial relationships, and what fans truly know about the people they idolise. While the issue of sexual violence and misconduct against women, especially in film and TV, is more pertinent and relevant than ever, the didacticism and tone the play took was perhaps not the best way to approach the subject matter.
PROBE plays at Old Fitz Theatre until September 14. Tickets can be found here.
