Two lonely co-workers at the bottom of the heap, he's an ex con, she wanted to be an actress and now waits tables., finally get it together and the sex is desperate and exciting. Will they make a go of it long term?

Johnny feels that time is running out to get his life together, and he wants it to be together with her. She's not so sure. He decides to woo her with words and feed her into submission.

Director Sally Putnam, for Mixed Salad productions, loves the text and with her two fine actors, Adam Tuominen and Theresa Sugars creates a sensitive performance of this duet for two unfulfilled voices. As the play, which sits neatly in the Holden street venue, settles in the two will adjust the rhythms and silences that shape the work.

McNally weaves the music of Debussy through the story, with the radio announcer making his own comments on their plight. Can they really be called Frankie and Johnny, he muses.

There are also hints of two possible futures.Frankie can see scenes of domestic violence from her window. Johnny speaks of seeing his ex wife and kids in a happy idyllic new life.


There is just one small problem. Tuominen and Sugars are too young and too beautiful. Don't let that stop you going. They are actors to watch, but shirtless or wrapped in a sheet there is no way they can possibly communicate the middle aged loneliness that is one of the motive forces behind their coming together.

If only the play had been cast with older, dare I say it, much less attractive actors, with sagging bodies and receding hair, the pathos of their plight would have filled the room.