Lia and Simon are trying to conceive. They have attempted IVF several times and it hasn’t worked. They’ve burned through all their savings and they are getting desperate. Lia has always wanted a child. Simon can’t see his future without one.
In a moment of desperation, Simon approaches his ex, Jo – an old friend of Lia – to see if she’ll donate the eggs she had frozen years before. Jo tells him if Lia wants to use her eggs, she’ll have to ask herself.
The meeting of all three of them goes even more disastrously. Jo cannot believe that Lia would have the gall to ask for such a favour, especially with the guy who came between them years before. She tells the couple to fuck off and leaves their apartment.
Keziah Warner’s new play, What’s Yours, places difficult circumstances inside the broken friendship of three characters who haven’t been genuine with each other since their uni days.
The opening scene, played behind a sheer curtain, shows us how deep Lia and Jo’s friendship was until Simon came on the scene. At the heart of it, this play is about their friendship with Simon as the ongoing complication.
Bianco Pardo’s set is sparse and cleverly designed. A long versatile table is at the centre of the action, props disappearing behind and under it for smooth and seamless transitions. It’s two different apartments and a bar and a restaurant.
The sheer curtain that hangs at the front of the stage as lights come up shows us the past in a haze and after it’s drawn back to reveal the present, it hangs at the back, often obscuring the “off stage” character to great effect. Even in scenes where there’s just two people together, the third actor is always present – lit precisely and hauntingly by Rachel Lee.
Director Isabella Vadiveloo keeps things moving throughout the 85-minute running time; the characters always on tenterhooks, wondering how the others will react to their next plea for help or their revelations of deception or desperation.
There are big discussions in the play about the choice to have children or be childfree. The character of Jo is written as if she must justify her choices to not have children, as if under interrogation by Lia.
Having surrounded myself with childfree people, I’ve heard many of my female friends tell stories of how they have been harangued with similar questions. To hear Lia effectively question whether Jo’s life has any purpose without children was shocking to me, but probably not surprising to women at all.
What’s Yours was developed through Red Stitch’s INK program and the part of Jo was written with actor Christina O’Neill in mind and this collaboration makes sense. O’Neill finds a way to balance Jo’s certainty and fragility that is compelling. There are moments when O’Neill is quietly devastating but when she unleashes her fiery side, the stage is hers. She is wonderful, as always.
Carissa Lee as Lia and Kevin Hofbauer as Simon have good chemistry together, but their best work is bouncing off O’Neill’s Jo. There are a lot of unresolved tensions between all three characters, but Lee is at her best when breaking down with her old best friend and Hofbauer’s somewhat nerdy writer character finds more passion when left alone with his ex.
There are some twists in the story that feel forced, but Warner’s text elucidates certain truths so wonderfully well that everything comes together in a satisfying way by the end. I was particularly compelled by the discussion about drifting and changing friendships and why sometimes even the closest people lose touch. And the final scene is perfectly judged in writing, direction and the performances of Lee and O’Neill.
What’s Yours takes a complex and complicated personal situation and turns up the heat. It’s knotty and messy. It’s funny and it hurts.
What’s Yours
Red Stitch Theatre, Rear 2 Chapel Street, St Kilda East
Performance: Friday 1 August 2025
Season continues to 24 August 2025
Information and Bookings: www.redstitch.net
Images: Kevin Hofbauer, Carissa Lee and Christina O’Neill in What’s Yours – photo by Ben Fon | Christina O’Neill and Kevin Hofbauer in What’s Yours – photo by Ben Fon | Christina O’Neill in What’s Yours – photo by Ben Fon
Review: Keith Gow