Sisyphean Quick Fix. Riverside Studios.

Writer:   Bettina Paris

Director:  Nicky Allpress

Sisyphean Quick Fix, performer Bettina Paris’ debut work as a writer, premiered at last year’s Edinburgh Fringe to a solid response. The semi-autobiographical two-hander, currently in a transfer at the Riverside Studios, covers familiar territory: the impact of caring for an alcoholic family member on those left to pick up the pieces. Paris does an effective job of charting squabbles and rivalry as sisters Krista and Pip deal, mostly ineffectively, with a much-loved father who is scraping rock bottom. Director Nicky Allpress brings light, shade, and comedic momentum, but the piece struggles to build to a convincing emotional climax.

Siblings Krista (Paris performs and writes) and Pip (Tina Rizzo, whose dapper attire camouflages a frazzled interior) are literally and metaphorically miles apart. The former is a London-based wannabee actor getting by on bar jobs, TV reruns, and occasional semi-random hook-ups. “Single and broke”, her big break beckons when she is called to audition for a dramatic adaptation of the Greek myth Sisyphus. Back home in Malta, fashionable younger sibling Pip juggles the competing demands of a high-flying career, an unsympathetic buttoned-up boyfriend, and a forthcoming wedding. The sisters have little in common; they love but may not actually like each other.

In the background is the duo’s unseen Dad, sometimes depressed, always a drinker, and now threatening to spiral out of control. Neither sister wants to be responsible for dealing with Dad’s misadventures, unexplained absences, public embarrassments, and late-night drunk-dialling. “This time, it’ll be different,” Dad assures them whenever he sobers up. Of course, it never is. Sisterly resentments bubble and simmer. Events come to a head when Krista visits home, and a stupefyingly drunken Dad slips and falls. Hospital tests reveal ominous findings. Will the sister’s relationship survive what is to follow?

Paris’ setup is good, aided by likeable performances from both leads. Unfortunately, the promised emotional crisis between the siblings splutters, flares, and sparks but never really ignites into life, leaving the final third of the play feeling under-egged. Perhaps family members do indeed face so few obstacles in arriving at a shared determination not to let their relationship suffer from the erratic behaviour of an addict. Dramatically speaking, at least here, this journey feels rather too easy. Some half-hearted efforts at explaining Dad’s addiction add little to the mix.

Still, there is much to enjoy in Sisyphean Quick Fix. Paris has a knack for quick-fire repartee and pithy putdowns, and there is palpable chemistry between her lippy, gregarious Krista and Rizzo’s passive-aggressive Pip. Matthew Cassar’s top-notch set design—cardboard boxes strewn with empty bottles, shoes, magazines, and other household detritus—effectively evokes the alcohol addict’s untidy, jumbled inner life.